


This Isn't Freedom

by Thatsarcasticidiot



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Minor Character Death, Mutants hide from the world, This a fight for justice fic, descriptions of violence, everyone hates mutants, mutant AU, they want them dead, this is a kinda heavy fic but its pretty light hearted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2019-06-26 20:44:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15670962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatsarcasticidiot/pseuds/Thatsarcasticidiot
Summary: mutantˈmjuːt(ə)nt/adjective, noun1. a supernatural creature with superhuman powers.2. A being that possesses genetic traits that allows the mutant to naturally develop exceptional powers and abilities.-It's been four hundred years since the mutant war, where mutants fought ruthlessly, and shed their blood in a fruitless attempt to gift their family down the line a peaceful life, where humans and mutants can live harmoniously, and well, you know what they say about history repeating itself.They've had enough of living in the shadows.orThe humans want them dead. They're not ready to die.





	1. Kwon Soonyoung (Shadow)

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my fic! this has been a work in progress for ages and i'm glad i can finally post it. This is a fic that just details their fight for equality as mutants. As a warning, this chapter mentions rape, but its very vague, however if you aren't comfortable with that then please don't read!
> 
>  
> 
> Btw yall should check out parkchimn's bts ft. Friends mutant au, and vjsenya's seventeen mutant au on YouTube, because I found these when I had just started writing this fic, and these au's pushed me to continue.

#### Kwon Soonyoung (Shadow)

'suːnjʌŋ/  
_mutant_  
1\. Super speed  
2\. Enhanced senses  
3\. Teleportation

-

They were outed at the end of university. That's when they had to go into hiding. It was inevitable really, all mutants are outed eventually, and they were no exception.

It was Soonyoung's fault, though it wasn't intentional. They were nearing their test week and things were hectic, as they always were when exams were steadily approaching, and the frequent nights of cramming for the entire duration of the darkness had finally begun taking their toll on Soonyoung's mental state.

The lack of sleep had finally gotten to Soonyoung as one of his literature classes was nearing it's end, when his warped logic thought it was a wise idea to teleport to his next class after literature was over, in the hopes of obtaining an extra ten minutes to complete the homework that he had somehow forgotten to complete in his previous all nighter. Stupid, he knows.

It turns out that he had wrongly assumed that no one would be in the room of him next class in his sleep deprived stupor and unfortunately, indeed there was.

There was. And to Soonyoung's dismay, things could definitely go from bad to worse; the person who happened to catch him (stupidly) harnessing his powers was the most preachy person he knew about mutants and their forever "evil intentions". Kang Hyunli; she adored history classes, always gloating about how her great great great grandfather helped "thwart" the mutant ancestors. 

Soonyoung's ancestors. 

It almost seemed as if the only thing that managed to process through the brick wall that was her brain was her wish of the elimination of all mutants. She vowed to join the police force when she was of age and to 'prolong the reign of humanity'. 

She made Soonyoung sick.

So it's pretty evident that Hyunli did not react attractively; screaming and yelling for the Gods to save her, that she's done nothing wrong. Soonyoung immediately knew that it was over, everything that he'd worked long and hard for instantly destroyed, the hours of lost sleep never regained in the form of success.

It was needless to say that he was exposed almost instantaneously, his face circulating all social media sites, the whole town shocked at how they've been living in such close proximity with "monsters".

Soonyoung had now become a public danger, wanted posters with his face plastered on it littered the streets. He knew what he'd done; his exposure had not only ruined his life, but it made sure that all other mutants in the area had to stay on high alert as the town would now be on their tip toes, looking to eliminate all mutants.

Soonyoung knew they would stop at nothing.

The last time this had happened was back in the December of 2414, six years ago.

The news had spread like wildfire, a twenty year old by the name of Taemin had been caught manipulating water at a store he worked at, (Soonyoung thought that was stupid, but then again, who was he to talk) when the police were called and allegedly showed up within minutes. They were all fully armed, guns and all, and it was said that the poor guy didn't even know what was going on.

People said he broke free, but was never seen again, which was smart; it would be extremely unwise to show your face to a world that was notoriously known for hunting your kind down. Soonyoung remembered how tense the whole city was, and how terrifying it felt to witness people just like himself being hunted down and killed in open view. It was dangerous to even breathe too loudly back then and the fifteen year old would have never thought he'd become the next Taemin.

With the same panic having returned, Soonyoung knew it wasn't safe for his best friends, Jihoon and Wonwoo, but yet, he could do nothing, forced into hiding.

He wondered if this was what Taemin felt like, trapped and helpless.

And guilty. 

Very, very guilty.

-

As Soonyoung had predicted, school had become very dangerous for Jihoon and Wonwoo, people watching their every step. Protests had now started, students demanding that their schools have tighter security about who is allowed to set foot in the building, saying that they "can't continue to endanger their lives by forcing them to live with such creatures."

If Hyunli was bad before, she was terrible now, feeling as if she had fulfilled some sort of prophecy regarding her, claiming that it was her destiny to defend humanity. She continuously announced that she always knew that something was up with Soonyoung, and that it was only a matter of time before he was outed and justice served. 

What a load of bullshit, Jihoon thought, she had no clue. 

Jihoon knew that life was going to become very difficult for all three of them, Soonyoung the most. He and Wonwoo were occasionally put under the spotlight for the suspicion that they were mutants due to their perfect scores. He could only pray that no one would pursue that theory.

But someone did.

Most young mutants live alone, as their parents are often in hiding, exposed years ago and never found again. Jihoon and Wonwoo ticked this criteria. Mutants often knew things about violence against them that no one else recalled, and the two boys also passed this criteria, able to retell stories about brutality against their kind with ease, though they never did, understanding the high risk that came with sharing these stories. Someone noticed.

Someone noticed all the little things that gave them away.

Someone realised that Soonyoung may have not been the only mutant studying at their school.

And Jihoon knew, Hoyoung's thoughts were as clear as day, and although he had not yet alerted anyone, Jihoon knew he was on the brink of doing so. They had to get out immediately, Jihoon had already drawn multiple conclusions in his head based on past experiences, and they all ended badly ( _all_ of them ended badly, trust him, he never forgets anything.) 

He was purely shocked at how far Hoyoung's suspicions had managed to climb before he was even alerted. It scared him. It showed him how even his mutant abilities can be beaten by a human, as arrogant as it sounds, and it showed him that nothing is impossible.

Their departure was carefully planned, every detail considered, in order for them to be able to leave unnoticed and have the least amount of concerns risen as possible. Their plan had absolutely no inconsistencies whatsoever.

Apart from one.

Hoyoung himself.

And they were perfectly aware of him. They were smart, impossibly smart even, and could easily outdo the most intelligent human out there, but there was no feasible way to eliminate Hoyoung or to make sure he stays silent without inescapably confirming themselves. So they had to leave, unable to do anything about Hoyoung and his rising suspicions, hoping that their other precautions would be enough to convince him that they were just normal students, simply leaving to go reside elsewhere.

They weren't.

Their departure practically confirms them, what with the suspicions already being so high, and Jihoon knows that they would have gotten away silently, had Hoyoung not interfered, and boy, was he angry. 

He hated being outsmarted.

Jihoon already knows that they might as well be exposed mutants, their lives never to be the same again. So when they finally met Soonyoung in a rundown warehouse, his temporary home, after packing all their things and leaving their lives behind, anger initially consumed Jihoon, all of his infamous logical thinking evaporating as he accused Soonyoung of everything under the sun, wrongly taking out his anger about the unfair laws of society on a friend that had done absolutely nothing wrong but be himself.

Irrational rage took over as Jihoon ignored Soonyoung's presence for days on end, choosing to wallow in his own self-pity, but his senses finally came back to him (with a little friendly encouragement from Wonwoo) and he realised that it may not have entirely been Soonyoung's fault.

(He knew the entire time, but was just in denial; still is. He doesn't have to be the logical thinker _all_ the time, okay?)

-

Needless to say their lives become a shit-ton harder, whether it's not being able to just pop out to the grocery store for a quick snack or having to change locations twice a week or having to move between cities at least once a fortnight.

They've adapted well to their new lifestyle, used to hiding and learning the art of existing only when necessary, used to not staying anywhere long enough to be able to call it home out of fear of being recognised and caught.

They almost have been once before, and it was a terrifying experience for all three of them that really could have been prevented.

It was a typical Sunday morning (well, as typical you could get as runaways), the small group had been residing in a small rundown cottage, empty upon their arrival. It was their third move since the warehouse, and things had gotten better, they had made a few connections, now able to obtain food and money much easier than when they first ran away.

The cottage was extremely grimy when they entered, obviously out of use for a sustainable amount of time, and the boys made little effort to clean and make it welcoming knowing that they would only be able to stay in it for two weeks at maximum.

However, before they knew it, two weeks had passed and they were steadily approaching their fourth, which would be official once Monday came around, and they had already been there for far, far too long. Soonyoung had just returned with bundles of food as their supplies were diminishing rapidly due to the fact that it just wasn't safe to leave often.

It was logical to send Soonyoung out to do the physical tasks thanks to his superspeed and physical abilities, and he was normally very meticulous during his endeavours but as soon as that brusque pounding started at the door; one of the police's most well known characteristics, all three of them immediately knew that something must have gone haywire during one of his trips.

A feeling of dread quickly washed over Wonwoo, but before he could even process it, Jihoon was already at the door, Soonyoung in his footsteps. The door swung open violently and there he stood. 

A policeman. 

Jihoon just knew that they had been recognised.

"Are you Lee Jihoon?" 

The policeman was extremely tall and muscular, and Jihoon had no idea how they would be able to take him down; he had surely brought a gun, knowing how the police prepared themselves around the 'danger' of mutants and any sign would legally warrant him to open fire and kill them all, even if it was entirely unjust and the mutants posed no threat.

So he opted for his only option. Deceit.

"No sir, my name is Kim Hansik." He made sure to keep his tone even and held eye contact with the officer, making no move to reveal the fear crawling underneath his clothes. Gesturing arrogantly, the officer moved for Soonyoung introduce himself.

"And you?"

"Park Kibeom, sir" 

Soonyoung was a great lier, his actions and calm face reflecting absolutely none of what he was truly thinking, his false words so convincing they almost made Jihoon fall for the fake persona. Almost. He could hear his every thought, after all.

The policeman made a sound of affirmation, a hint of suspicion lacing his tone when he asks,

"Is there anyone by the name of Jeon Wonwoo in this house?" 

The boys both shook their heads simultaneously, calmly, relaxed, hoping that Wonwoo wouldn't make any noises that suggested that another person was living in the house.

"May I come in?"

The police officer was already making his way into the cottage throwing offended comments about their 'interesting lifestyle', his eyebrows shooting up at the state of house as he walked into the front room, Jihoon silently prayed that Wonwoo understood that the police officer had not left, and stayed hidden, wherever he was.

As the police officer searched the cottage, Jihoon began weighing his options and it seemed as if Soonyoung was thinking the same, as he caught onto Soonyoung's thought frequency.

_"Should we kill him?"_

"Should we make pizza today?" Soonyoung asked, a complete different question from what he was thinking, but would still provide the answer he needed. Smart, Jihoon thought.

Immediately catching onto what Soonyoung was trying to do, he replied.

"There's no point." A confused look was shot at Jihoon, as Soonyoung questioned why.

"We'd be leaving straight after it finishes cooking, so what's the point." Jihoon hoped that Soonyoung could understand the message he was trying to convey, that killing him would do no good, as they would be leaving right after and all it would do is raise suspicions and fuel the stigma surrounding mutants.

_"Should we run away and just let him leave?"_

"Okay, should we just order takeout on the way home then?" 

Soonyoung smiles, a complete juxtaposition to the discreet conversation they were really having.

"Sure, let's just try not to get caught up, I heard the traffic's going to be pretty bad tonight."

-  
-  
-

 

It was nothing new to them, being exposed, they kind of even flaunted their abilities, knowing that nobody would be able to track down their settlement of sorts.

Seungcheol had been living like this for a while, along with his friends: Seungkwan, Jisoo and Jun. They hadn't known each other prior to being exposed, barring Seungkwan and Jun, who's parents were neighbors, and had all bonded over their shared hatred of the unfair laws of society.

In terms of who was the most bitter about being exposed, most of his friends would probably vote Seungcheol, who had the worst exposure story among them, but the kindest heart. 

-

Walking home from college was a custom for Seungcheol, who vowed to never fall victim to the unhealthy habits that come with owning a car, and to keep healthy by walking everywhere, which he knew he wouldn't if he had a car. He had his license of course, but never bothered getting a car, borrowing his roommate's only when especially necessary. His route home passed an alleyway, which he often took, as it slightly extended the journey, giving him more time to think if he had experienced a stressful day.

As he grew closer to that alley - which he wasn't planning to take that day; he just wanted to get home and sleep - he noticed disturbing noises coming from a hidden corner, the sounds of a struggle. 

From the sound of it, the woman was putting up a good fight, holding her ground, but when the deafening sound of silence erupted in his ears, dread snuck into the air. With that, he took off into a sprint towards where the sounds were coming from, his heroic nature overpowering the common sense that told him that he was running straight into the face of danger.

 

What flooded his sight was a scene meant for no one to see. Half clothed, a petite woman lay on the floor, blood encasing her being, her clothes ripped and torn as a man stood over about to commit acts Seungcheol never wanted to think about in his life.

Upon spotting him, the woman's eyes bulged, and Seungcheol was filled with a newfound determination to save the woman. He motioned for the woman to keep quiet with a finger to his lips, and thought about how he was going to handle this. Seungcheol could easily beat this man in a physical fight, his strength way beyond others and he could also utilise his telekinesis. This man didn't stand a chance, except for the fact that both the woman and the man were likely to report him.

Seungcheol liked his life, he enjoyed going to college and he enjoyed his apartment, he had the typical lifestyle of a kid in college and he wasn't prepared to lose it all that quickly, but he also couldn't kill a man, or leave this woman to die, which left one option: to fight this man without using any of his abilities, which was easier said than done, as his powers came to him like a second nature, especially his strength.

Seungcheol stalked toward the man, rounding up behind him, before throwing a calculated punch to the side of his head, making him stumble. The man caught himself and spun round quickly, alert and ready to fight, the woman still on the floor, too weak and scared to move. 

They save no time for speech, immediately throwing punches and kicks anywhere they could. The man lands a good punch to Seungcheol's jaw and the metallic taste of blood soon fills his mouth and he slightly recoils. His eyes blazing red, he shoots his leg out, performing a painful kick against his groin, making him crouch a little. In that position, Seungcheol raises his arm high above his head and brings it down forcefully against the guys neck.

He turns quickly to make sure that the woman's okay, but when he turns to look, he finds no one. Turning back, he's shocked, as he finds the man, with a knife wielded right in front of the woman's neck. Seungcheol's fighting stance immediately drops as he thinks.

The woman is sobbing now, trying to keep quiet, but failing, her cries wracking through her body; she's visibly broken. Seungcheol considers listening to the man's advice and backing off, but figures that the woman will have the same fate if he just leaves.

Known for having a big heart, however much he tries to hide it, he chooses to sacrifice himself. Concentrating, he focuses on a brick behind the man and slowly brings it forward using his telekinesis. The man eventually notices and tries to follow where Seungcheol's attention is located, but notices the brick coming towards him at full speed a bit too late.

The man was sprawled against the floor of the alleyway, barely conscious, the woman albeit slightly relieved, fearful of something else now.

She's encountered a mutant.

Seungcheol does his best to reassure her but to no avail, and then proceeds to call the police and an ambulance for her, despite knowing that she'll spill every word to them.

He leaves her with a short you're welcome and his name.

-

Seungcheol does go back to college after the events, but it's not long until he's exposed, the man exposing him from his cell in jail, leading him to leaving his life and friends for the unknown. He never bothered to find out who the woman was after seeing the fear in her eyes, and left the man and the woman in a tucked away corner of his mind.

The next person to get exposed, and added was Junhui, a former uni student and, just like Soonyoung, was extremely stressed at the time of his exposure, stressed to the point of stupid irrationality. 

It was just a normal day, he was with Minhyuk, his best friend and also a mutant. He was feeling slightly under the weather and the usual incessant questions were more annoying than normal. Most mutants chose to major in things that were opposite to what they were naturally gifted at, in order to raise the least amount of suspicions possible but Jun chose sport, even though he possessed enhanced agility and reflexes, it was just what he loved.

So as you can expect, Jun was used to the never ending questions regarding his abilities and was normally able to deflect them well enough, but today was a bad day. And Jun can't afford to have bad days. 

He found himself growing irritated at the simplest of things, and it just kept piling up, his worries becoming precariously high and eventually mutating into anger. Jun was normally a wise man and he knew when he was getting too agitated for his own good, however he found himself ploughing through the day, not giving himself any time to just relax. 

So when the barista working at the cafe they were at for their weekly study session spilt coffee all over his fucking laptop, he lost it, and it wasn't pretty. The poor girl kept apologising, bowing repeatedly whilst grabbing multiple cloths, and she really didn't deserve any of this. 

Everything that had just gone _wrong_ today was playing on repeat in his thoughts, akin to a faulty vhs tape. He was blinded by rage and irritation, and without even noticing, he began to levitate. All heads that weren't already turned to face the ordeal did so and the cafe gradually grew silent. Minhyuk tapped at his thigh, which, by that point, was level with his head.

"Umm.. Junhui, we're in trouble."

Jun instantly snapped out of his rage induced trance, and began to realise what had just happened. The cafe worker was cowering on the floor, still begging although Jun was now calm, no longer levitating, and it pulled at Jun's heart that the result of him having a bad day, of him being so careless could instil such fear in anyone and end so catastrophically. 

Jun was still in a daze when he heard the police sirens and the loud, bellowing horns of the Mutant Control and Containment cars, when Minhyuk hauled him up and yelled, "Go!"

They ran, and ran until the gunshots became fainter and fainter. They had no home for weeks, for it was too dangerous for them to return home, leaving them to aimlessly wandering the streets during the day, and finding vacant spaces to rest at night.

It was during one of their days where they decided to wander about, the fear of being recognised long gone as they had decided that being captured was better than this, wandering around hungry, homeless and scared, when a nameless man beckoned them over from a discreet alleyway. Initially, they were wary of the man, common sense still lingering in the back of their minds, but better than that, there was hunger, which overpowered all rationality.

So they headed towards the man, the possibility of food too large of an opportunity to give up. The man had his face covered and a bucket hat sat low on his head, blocking his eyes from view, his attire normal and he seemed around their age.

"You're mutants, aren't you." The man spoke in a hushed whisper. "Wen Jun Hui and Lee Minhyuk"

Both boys immediately began to sputter and mumble, fear overtaking their basic functions, such as speech. They had already known that it was a matter of time before they were recognised and they have been before, but now that it was actually happening, and so suddenly at that, they didn't know what to do. At all. How were they going to tell their friends, the little family they had left? Were they ever going to able to go return to humanity? Were they going to be kille-

Jun looked up, broken from his thoughts when Minhyuk gently nudged him, making him aware of his surroundings. There was a faint light blue dome surrounding them, slightly vibrating and they turned their attention to the man. That icy blue was one often he associated with force fields, so inevitably Minhyuk. 

Harshly whispering, he inconspicuously shoved his friend, "why are you doing that, are you _trying_ to get us killed?" 

He couldn't understand why Minhyuk was creating a force field now of all times, much less why the perpetrator was in the force field with them. They still could have had enough time to fool the man and get away. Idiot.

"I'm not doing that."

What.

"He's right." The man increased the size of the force field just to decrease it again in order to make his point. "I'm a mutant too, I can help you."

Both boys were still reeling in shock at the revelation of such a fact, recovering from the fear of nearly being caught and now, from the surprise of finding another of their kind.

"The name's Seungcheol, by the way."

-

"Wait, so you know about _every_ mutant in Seoul?" Minhyuk's questions just didn't seem to stop, each question bleeding into another, as he touched every porcelain vase he came across in Seungcheol's house . Seungcheol surprisingly wasn't annoyed however, calmly answering each and every query with a smile on his face.

"Not really, only about the ones who've been exposed. I know where they all are." Minhyuk's shock displayed clearly on his face, his mouth hanging in an 'o' shape.

"It's not that hard, it just took a while, people spread mutant news like wildfire." 

It was now Jun's turn to be confused. "So... What are you planning to do?" He truly didn't understand the point of possessing that type of information.

"I want to help, I guess? It just really pisses me off how we're forced into a life like this, just because of who we are; after you're exposed, it's either you get thrown into prison, or you become homeless." Seungcheol sounded like he really cared, his eyes firey and voice passionate when he spoke.

"The only reason why I'm not like that is because my parents are still here, in civilisation." Both of them took a visible double take, a mutant with parents? It was almost unheard of, someone living that long without being exposed. 

"That still doesn't explain why you have a fucking _house_?" Jun questioned, still not trusting the man, why should he? He just plucked them off the street after realising they were mutants. What if this was part of some elaborate plan to capture and kill them?

"My parents kinda made a name for themselves, but kept me hidden. Ever heard of Choi Inc.?" For what seemed like the thousandth time, the boys' mouths hung wide open. "My full name is Choi Seungcheol. So this house, and every other that I have, is under their name, no one knows that I'm their son." Jun could spot the sadness in his eyes, hidden by another emotion; determination. Jun couldn't help but feel sorry for Seungcheol, even though he had no contact with his own parents and had no way of knowing if they were even alive. Imagine not being able to openly express your love to your parents, though they are right there, out of fear, the fear of getting them and yourself killed. 

There was still one thing that neither of the two boys understood; why they were brought here? So that's just what Jun questioned, and they were more than surprised by the answer.

Seungcheol was offering a home to them, letting them stay in the large house he called home. Rational parts of their minds told them that they can't, that they shouldn't, what if he couldn't be trusted, what could he gain from doing this? However the section of their minds that took over was the one overcome by tiredness, hunger and cold.

They chose to stay, a complete flip of their lives just weeks ago, opposite ends of the scale. Where they couldn't find places to sleep, they now had a selection of rooms to choose from. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that maybe, Seungcheol was just bored, in need of company after living a life alone for so long, until he started recruiting more people to live in these houses he owned, a risk too large to take under the excuse of "just being bored".

But then again, who were they to question this man whose done nothing but help them, and stuck his own neck on the line, just to give them a place to call home. So as a form of thanks, they joined him on his next mission, to find someone by the name of Hong Jisoo.

-  
-  
-

Hong Jisoo was a sweet soul, always offering to help, even when not necessary, never holding grudges and being kind, even to those who deserved not an ounce. This did not make him a fool however, and he knew when things just weren't right.

For instance, Jisoo had acquired the nickname of "healing hand" around campus, due to the fact that he often made tea for himself, or his friends when they were sick, which had 'healing properties'. Unbeknownst to them, Jisoo always made sure to lay a hand on their shoulder, or to fix their hair, healing them that way instead.

He was always careful to heal them just enough so that it wasn't suspicious but still got them up and running again. It felt nice, helping someone like that, being able to change someone's mood for the better. However, people who weren't affiliated with Jisoo in anyway began asking for a serving of his 'tea', which Jisoo provided, at first, but grew wary as time continued. Suspicions were beginning to rise and Jisoo was still finding it difficult to kindly deny someone of his help, until it became too much. That was the day his tea 'ran out'. 

He's always been careful since then, keeping his powers for himself and himself only. This didn't stop his caring persona from being unleashed though, and still made sure to be of aid whenever possible.

Life is unfair, it just happens that those who are kindest, experience the worst; Jisoo could tell you himself. It was a good day for Jisoo, his essay was nominated as the best out of his class and his best friend had actually decided to attend classes today; how Donghyuck got away with skipping so much will never fail to amaze him, but the angry calls from his best friend's mother are truly sprouting the premature grey hairs. He supposes it's what he gets for being friends with young people.

Donghyuck had been blabbering about nonsense for fifteen minutes, going on about this "Mark hyung" repeatedly. Jisoo was kind of glad that Donghyuck was actually meeting good people of his age, notorious for previously hanging out with the 'wrong crowd'. He was changing rapidly, but Jisoo still has that feeling that nothing will ever make that kid enjoy school. 

They were sitting in an empty lecture hall, choosing to wait out the rain instead of going straight home. Jisoo had just insulted Donghyuck, the latter clutching a hand over his chest, feigning hurt, before grabbing his bottle of water.

"I wonder why everyone thinks you're such a saint Jisoo, I can't catch a fucking break around you." 

Jisoo, feeling like pissing Donghyuck off even more, waits for him to begin drinking before channeling the water right into his best friend's face. Donghyuck sputters unceremoniously and slams the water bottle down before swatting at Jisoo.

Donghyuck was very human, and did not posses any sort of power, but was aware of his best friend's abilities. He found out accidentally because the idiot jumped into the ocean, at night, fully clothed when they went for a stroll by the beach on an evening where they were so very bored. Donghyuck was shaking by the time he waded out and Jisoo was barely thinking when he shrouded himself in fire to warm his best friend. Yes, his clothes were burnt to ashes and yes, they were both drunk.

Donghyuck didn't seem to be shocked at the fact that he had superhuman power, but at the fact that he had four. Probably because most mutants only had three, however Jisoo still doesn't understand why that would shock him more than the fact that he was a mutant, but then again Donghyuck was just very hard to understand in general.

After Donghyuck slaps Jisoo more times than necessary, only stopping when Jisoo threatens him with the prospect that there was still water in that bottle, silently wishing that he could produce water like he could fire, both boys get ready for the walk home. Gathering their belongings, they head for the door before Donghyuck shoves Jisoo one more time, into the wall to the right of the door. Jisoo's natural instinct acts before his brain does and he passes clean through the wall. Right into his biology professor. 

Donghyuck and Jisoo make eye contact as soon as he walks through the door, and their eyes widen simultaneously, along with the professor's. They all move at once, Donghyuck beginning conversation with the professor, acting as if he saw nothing, the professor whipping out his phone, and Jisoo booking it down the hallway to the exit. 

It turns out that Donghyuck was unsuccessful in convincing the professor that nothing happened, and the professor is "very upset about having to report his favourite student." Jisoo encourages a reluctant Donghyuck to act as if he was oblivious to Jisoo's powers the whole time, before exiting his apartment silently, leaving not a trace that he existed behind.

Jisoo was found in the same way Seungcheol met Jun and Minhyuk, picked up of the street, and shown a new home. It felt nice to experience kindness himself, almost strange.

-  
-  
-

The final original member of the main circle to be added to the group was music major, Boo Seungkwan.

Seungkwan was rather popular, always with a minimum of four friends with him at all times, his voice attracting many fans and friends. Albeit them being a massive confidence boost, his number of friends were also a slight inconvenience, seeing as a slight slip up could expose him to all of his followers, and let's just say that Seungkwan wasn't blessed with as genuine friends as Jun and Jisoo were.

Seungkwan never used his powers outrageously though, only for slight things, like making it just that bit cloudier on a scorching day, or warming up his coffee after accidentally letting it grow cold. It wasn't really like he could make any ostentatious changes to the weather, as his powers weren't that developed yet anyway.

But a bored Seungkwan makes a stupid Seungkwan, and stupid he was. All his friends were in classes, and though he was sure it would be pretty easily to find someone to hang out with for the time being, he didn't really feel up to putting up a cheery, friendly front for somebody he barely knows. 

He decided to eat his lunch outside today, on the field, seeing as he had no one to go anywhere with anyways. An empty patch littered with budding flowers reached out to Seungkwan the most as he set his pasta on the floor before sitting down himself. He found himself getting lost in thought whilst eating, eyes always finding one of the flowers that had yet to bloom. It was times like these where Seungkwan wished he had a set of true friends, who were there for him, not his popularity or voice. It dawned on him that he had no one to truly trust but himself.

Boredom latches it's jaws onto Seungkwan's shoulders yet again, but this time, his eyes are trained on a single flower, which has barely even sprouted from the ground, and with all common sense having left him, he begins to aid the plant on its journey. 

He watched as it begins to bloom under his palm, a pretty white contrasting the earthy green of the grass below it, inspired, Seungkwan begins to create a mini garden beneath his hands, each flower blooming in the direction of wherever Seungkwan's hands last were. It made Seungkwan feel powerful, being able to make these plants bloom at his will, as insignificant and inferior as daisies are compared to other plant life in the area. Unknowingly Seungkwan begins attracting attention, a small crowd of no more than eight people surrounding his work of the past five minutes.

He looks up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clearing up misconceptions:
> 
> \- Jisoo can control water that's already there, but he can't create it like he can create fire  
> \- Jisoo isn't affected by heat/fire but he can drown  
> \- All mutants have three powers that develop throughout their lives and at the age that the mutants are now, only one of them is developed fully (except Jisoo, he's a special case), This is so they aren't super powerful killing machines  
> \- Jihoon's fully developed power is photographic memory  
> \- Soonyoung's fully developed power is enhanced senses  
> \- Wonwoo's fully developed power is super intelligence  
> \- Seungcheol's fully developed power is force field manipulation  
> \- Jisoo's fully developed powers are pyrokinesis and phasing  
> \- Jun's fully developed power is gravitational reduction  
> \- Seungkwan's fully developed power is cryokinesis  
> \- There are 4 seperate groups that HAVEN'T MET EACHOTHER YET.  
> \- Please tell me if you felt this chapter was too long because I did, I'll try shorten the later ones.


	2. Choi Seungcheol (Arrow)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back and it's been a while, I have no excuse I'm just irresponsible lol

#### Choi Seungcheol (Arrow)

'sʊŋtʃɒl/  
_mutant_  
1\. Super human strength  
2\. Force field manipulation  
3\. Teleportation

-

Seungkwan clearly wasn't ready to let go of his life when they found him, and honest to god, if they hadn't, he'd probably be dead. He'd gone through phases of anger, sadness, tears, distrust and denial, denial being the most difficult to deal with. Jun swears that Seungkwan actually managed to convince himself that he wasn't a mutant and that everyone was lying to him. At that point, Jun was ready to call it a day and head home, but he knew that wouldn't sit very well with their leader.

Seungkwan was really a test for Seungcheol's patience (Jun and Minhyuk having already given up), taking the time to sit down with him and explaining everything in detail, about how he can never return to his old life and popularity. Needless to say, Seungkwan didn't take that very well. Seungcheol knew they were running out of time; soon, people were going to start searching for Seungkwan, and then they'd all be screwed. They were still wanted individuals.

Jisoo could see the stress lines gathering around the unofficial leader's temple and decided to take matters into his own hands, before things got worse. With a kind look set on his face, he kneeled in front of Seungkwan's crowching figure. "Look, Seungkwan, I understand, we all do. You had a great life, amazing friends, you were in school, and you don't want to leave that behind, I get that; two weeks ago, I was in your position." Jisoo caught the look of surprise that flickered on his face for a millisecond, before the fear took over again. "You need to understand, Seungkwan, we're just trying to help. Your friends won't necessarily be your friends when they find out that you’re a mutant." 

He could see Seungkwan's features soften, sadness overcoming the fear, but he could also see Seungcheol becoming restless, worry and anxiety evident on his face, in the corner of his eye. He places his hands on top of that of of both men, a comforting gesture for both, a promise of a better future for Seungkwan and a promise that they'll be fine for Seungcheol. He opts for the harsh truth, whispered softly. "None of us want to die, Seungkwan, but that's what'll happen if we stay any longer." 

That seems to get through to the boy as he rises to his feet, taking a deep breath, all his doubts exiting with that one breath.

"Let's go."

 

-

After that, it was like a switch flipped inside of Seungkwan once they returned to the home; he was angry. Angry at everything and everyone. Angry at the humans, at his parents, at the sheer unfairness of everything.

"So what are we planning to do?" Seungkwan said expectantly, as he burst into the living room, where the others were sitting peacefully, all in their own world, quiet. What a shame. He had a question that needed answering. He had a hand perched on his hip, his expression morphing into distaste when met with silence, he scoffed. "Don't tell me we're just sitting ducks while this is all happening?"

Seungcheol looked up from his place on the couch, "that's kinda the plan, we just need to stay safe for now." His tone was cautious, like he knew that Seungkwan wasn't going to have any of that.

"So I just escaped hiding my whole life, to hide again?" His voice was incredulous, shocked. Seungcheol shrugged, almost in a way of saying 'pretty much'.

Seungkwan was pissed, more than pissed in fact. He had left everything behind, moved into a fancy new house with total strangers, who claimed to be mutants, hoping that he would at least be able to use his powers freely. No offence, but he felt like he was getting the short end of the stick in this whole 'life' thing.

-

It didn't take much longer for Seungkwan to experience what he seemed to be waiting for; excitement. 

Jisoo had woken up, and along with Seungcheol, performed their daily task of making breakfast for the five residents of the house, Seungcheol brought it up first. "Do you think we'll become too obvious?" When Jisoo raised his eyebrow, Seungcheol elaborated. "I mean, there are five adult mutants living in one house, after all."

Honestly, Jisoo thought it was a matter of time before they were all caught, five mutants just posed too great of a risk against a world that hated their kind, and he just wanted to live his best life in the numbered days they had left. He didn't dare say this to Seungcheol of course, their leader was already stressed enough.

"I'm not sure, Seungcheol, there's no way for us to tell, but we'll be fine, I know we will." He gave Seungcheol a small smile, and his heart nearly burst when Seungcheol returned one of his own. Leaning against the counter, as they waited for the remaining boys to wake up, he looked up at Seungcheol, a question on his lips. "What do you mean to do with the names of all those mutants?"

Seungcheol awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, "actually, I don't really know, it just kinda worries me that if I was able to find all of this out, someone else probably could, and has, done the same." 

Well fuck. Jisoo had never thought of it that way, and it made a whole lot of sense. Maybe they were in a load more danger than he thought. Their lovely discussion was brought to an abrupt end by the thudding footsteps of two boys descending the stairs and Seungcheol looked at him, a glint in his eyes that told him, we'll continue this later. 

Jun and Seungkwan barely even acknowledged the two boys by the kitchen counters, a simple nod in their vague direction each, before they dived straight for the food. Seungcheol and Jisoo shook their heads silently at the boys.

"Where's Minhyuk?"

"Asleep. Said he doesn't feel well." 

Jisoo raised an eyebrow to that. Not many things got mutants sick like humans. They got a different type of sick. The ‘lose your abilities’ kind of sick.

"Well, is he okay?" Jun only halfheartedly shrugged to that, all attention directed to the food. Jisoo smacked both boys of the back of the heads, muttering a 'useless' under his breath, before stomping up the stairs to check on Minhyuk. 

Jisoo opened the door to a Minhyuk curled in bed, cocooned in all of his blankets. He quietly shut the door behind him, before crouching beside the bed, laying a hand on Minhyuk's shoulder, to turn him, so that Jisoo could see his face. 

"My powers aren't working." Minhyuk blurts out. 

"What?" 

"I had a really bad feeling, so I tried to create a force field, and I can't make any. Even small ones." Jisoo didn't know what to say, he'd never experienced this.

"Are you sick?"

"That's the thing, I know I'm not sick. I've been sick before, I know what it feels like." Jisoo was at a loss for words.

"I had a really bad feeling as soon as I woke up, I've never had one as bad as this." Minhyuk was a precognitive, it was common knowledge within the household, but he'd never had a vision during their time of knowing each other, Jun being the only person around when one happened. "Did you have a vision?"

Minhyuk stared at him blankly, "I don't get visions. I'm a psychological precog, Jisoo, not a visual one. I feel things." 

Well, that explains things, they were all waiting for a dramatic vision, where Minhyuk would faint, or become unresponsive, or something, when really, he probably had forseeings all the damn time. Oops.

"But Jisoo, I have never had a feeling as strong as this. I think it's overriding my other powers." Minhyuk clutched the sleeve of Jisoo's shirt. He was beginning to panic. Jisoo began to draw circles on Minhyuk's arm, in a feeble attempt to calm him down. "Look, Minhyuk, I'm sure we'll be fine, I'll just tell Seungcheol an-" Minhyuk cut him off, pulling his arm away roughly. 

"No, Jisoo, you don't understand. " Minhyuk looked him dead in the eye. "I don't know what, but something very bad is going to happen, tonight."

Jisoo ignored the shiver that crawled up his spine.

-

The rest of the day went as it normally would, ignoring the uneasy feeling lurking over all of the boys. It was around six in the evening, Minhyuk and Seungcheol were in the living room, watching a movie that none of them were really interested in. The others were locked away in their rooms when shouts came from outside. Everyone in the house instantly sat up; the house was very remote, no one ever passed by. 

Jisoo wondered if this was what Minhyuk was talking about. He rose from his bed, pulling a sweatshirt on, before leaving his room in the direction of the living room, knocking on the boys' doors on the way. He was about to shout out for Seungcheol, when a gunshot pierced the almost silence. He stifled a gasp, stumbling backwards. What was happening?

He heard a door click shut behind him and he turned swiftly, holding a finger to his lips upon spotting the two boys. Seungkwan made a motion to ask what was going on, and Jisoo had only one answer. "I think we've been caught." His theory was proved correct when all three heard the collapse of the front door, and loud footsteps charging into the house.

"Search the house. Be very cautious, we don't know what they're capable of." 

At this point, Jisoo was shivering, terrified. He ushered the boys backwards with one hand, only letting his breath go when they reach Jun's door. He silently thanked Jun for leaving his door open. They were on the third floor. The window wasn't an option. Maybe for Jun, with his enhanced agility and the fact that he can literally turn into a cat, but the rest of them needed a way out too.

Seungkwan nudged them both, mouthing a question, are they okay? The other two were on the first floor, where the entrance was, and Jisoo couldn't stop thinking about the single shot, it was loud, piercing, and they were on the third floor. He can't imagine how loud it was for the boys downstairs. 

Jisoo squeezed Seungkwan's hand in a gesture that said they'd be fine. He's had to do that a lot recently. He didn't know how credible that was though, knowing just how weak Minhyuk had been today, and Seungcheol's hesitancy to resort to violence. He didn't know if they'd make it out alive. But he couldn't worry the boys, they were his responsibility. 

"Look, I don't know how we're going to handle this situation, but we need to get out. Remember the other houses Seungcheol was talking about?" He received two nods. "That's where you need to head if things go haywire and you end up alone. Don't stop for anything. Or anyone." 

Jun nodded firmly, seeming confident, but Jisoo could see the shakiness in his breathing, the trembling of his hands. He offered him a small smile, an attempt of comfort, no matter how small. 

Jisoo didn't have a clue on how they were going to handle this, were they going to be pacifists and sneak out, or use violence and kill everyone in their path? Which was safer, easier? Which was morally correct?

A cry of pain echoed throughout the house, and all three immediately tensed, before realising that the voice was not that of their friends downstairs. They breathed a sigh of relief. It seems that they made the call for them. Their relief was short lived however, as heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs.

There was a final nod between the three, almost a confirmation that this was really happening, that they were really doing this. Jisoo edged towards the door, the boys following suit, his heart beating loudly in his throat. Checking around that corner was somehow the scariest thing Jisoo had done all night, his mind getting the best of him, wondering what, who, he might see upon peeking around the bend. He willed himself calm with a count from one to ten, and on the final number, he peered around the corner of the door frame. It was clear.

Jun pushed past them both walking brazenly into the hallway, gesturing for the other two to follow. They walked forward tentatively, rounding another corner and just beyond that, were the stairs. Not even a moment after turning that corner, Junhui backtracked at lightning speed.

"There's someone there." He whispered quietly, the other two still in shock, barely seeing, never mind processing the man in black military uniform, padded heavily, before being shoved backwards.  
Seungkwan guesses that Jisoo didn't catch the glimpse that he did, judging by the confused look that he sent Jun's way.

He shrugged before turning back to the direction of the man, "my reflexes." Jun offers in light of an explanation. Jisoo seems to take that and they return to the focus of the military soldier. Looking back at where Jun was, they're left in shock, as where he stood was now empty, void of anything but air. 

The two remaining boys immediately begin to panic, making brief eye contact before looking at the soldier again. He hadn't moved, but where was Jun? The answer to their question appeared in five short seconds when, Jun materialised out of seemingly nothing behind the soldier. He wrapped a toned arm around the soldier's neck, squeezing, motioning with his head for the other two to come closer. The soldier immediately tried to shoot the boy behind him, but ultimately could not get a shot before the other two wrestled it off of him.

The soldier struggled for three straight minutes after Seungkwan grabbed his gun (with much difficulty), before stilling. The other two just watched the process happen in shock. Jun laid him on the floor gently to not create any noise before straightening and meeting expecting faces. "What the fuck was that, hm?" Seungkwan asks.

"Shape shifting. I turned into an ant." Jisoo and Seungkwan began laughing incredulously, clapping slowly, shaking their heads in disbelief. "An ant? We thought you fucking disappeared."

Jun awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, "well yeah, I guess, I can only shift into small animals, biggest is a dog. It's been pretty much useless until now." 

Jisoo's laughter stopped quickly when his phone vibrated loudly in his pocket. It was a message from Seungcheol.

 

 _18:47_  
**Seungcheol:**  
8 men

 **Seungcheol:**  
heavily armed

 **Seungcheol:**  
took 1 out

 **Seungcheol:**  
sending reinforcements

 

 _18:48_  
**Jisoo:**  
wdym

 **Jisoo:**  
where r u

 **Jisoo:**  
are u alone

 

 **Seungcheol:**  
hiding 

**Seungcheol:**  
With minhyuk

 _18:49_  
**Seungcheol:**  
theyre sending more people

 **Seungcheol:**  
get out of the fucking house

 

"What's going on?" 

"They're okay, but more people are coming" Their breathing immediately quickened after that statement, nerve wracking their bones. "We need to get out. Now."

-

They had managed to get to the second floor without problems, the remaining six men probably being on the lowest floor. They were passing through the second living room, when another soldier burst through the door. All three instantly ducked behind the couches in the room, their heartbeats so loud, the soldier could probably hear. This soldier was closer, and directly in front of them, partially blocked by the couch. Seungkwan could take care of this one. 

He quickly stood whilst the soldier was facing the opposite direction. What he’s about to do was risky; he’d never tried to use his cryokinesis on another person, only objects, and he wasn’t entirely sure if it would work. It was a gamble. He settled a hand on the soldiers back, gripping tight and working quickly before he had a chance to escape and most likely kill them all. Ignoring the incredulous looks he was getting from his friends, he tried to remember all the way back to school, if he remembered correctly, recusing his body temperature would kill him quicker than inducing fever. But he needs help, he’d have to lower his body temperature by about three degrees and until then, he’s sure the soldier will put up one hell of a fight. Everyone seems to jump into action the second Seungkwan lays his hand on the soldier, the other two wrestling the soldier of his gun, whilst he shot manically at the ceiling and walls. 

Jun was now pinning the soldier to the couch, whilst Jisoo held the gun. He had gestured towards the gun when it was handed to him, asking if they would shoot him, but was met with hesitant looks. 

“It would be quicker.” Jisoo attempted to reason.  
Jun was quick to reply, “I can’t just _shoot_ him.”

“Bu-“

“Do you want to do the honors, hm?” That quickly shut him up. A couple minutes later, when the man finally passed out, Seungkwan had finally let go, Jun having to release the soldier minutes before due to his rapidly decreasing temperature. 

“He should die within a few minutes, let’s go.” When worried glances were sent his way, he looked at the shuddering man. He sighs, “look, let’s hope he lives, but if you’re worried, he’d be way too weak to do anything anyway.”

That seems to convince the guys, and they press forwards, pushing the two they’ve killed to the back of their minds.

 

-

 

Reaching the bottom floor proved to be less of a struggle than the previous two, as they met nobody on their journey. They all entered the bathroom, locking the door behind them quietly before allowing Jisoo to fire a text off to Seungcheol. 

 

 _19:21_  
**Jisoo:**  
were downstairs

 **Jisoo:**  
killed two 

 

 **Seungcheol:**  
same

 **Seungcheol:**  
thats half their team

 **Seungcheol:**  
the rest isnt worth it 

**Seungcheol:**  
i think most of them are heading upstairs

 **Seungcheol:**  
better go before they find the bodies

 

 **Jisoo:**  
what do you want us to do

 

 _19:22_  
**Seungcheol:**  
leave through the back door

 

 **Jisoo:**  
what about you guys???

 

 **Seungcheol:**  
well meet u guys outside

 **Seungcheol:**  
and jisoo?

 

 **Jisoo:**  
??

 **Seungcheol:**  
we’re gonna need your help 

 

Jisoo was full of questions, what does that mean? What kind of help, were they hurt? Do they need him to heal them? How hurt were they? He remembers the first gunshot, how loud it was, the silence that followed. There’s only so much Jisoo can do, he hopes whatever they need help with isn’t as bad as he’s thinking. 

 

-  
-  
-

 

Yet again, the three boys are startled by rough pounding on the door, and Jihoon sighs heavily, trouble just follows them around. When no one moves, Jihoon gestures expectantly at Soonyoung.

"What?"

"Go answer it."

"Can't we just wait for them to go away?" Jihoon gives Soonyoung a stern look, about to explain why waiting would be the worst possible choice, and about to outline every reason that Soonyoung was an idiot, when Soonyoung whined a please and pouted slightly. 

Against his better judgement, Jihoon hesitated, stunned, but about to resume his essay on why Soonyoung was stupid when he was cut off by Wonwoo.

"You two are _disgusting_. I'll answer the fucking door." Wonwoo stood up heavily, dragging his footsteps as he made his way to the front door of their little apartment that Soonyoung negotiated their way into. Soonyoung knew people, okay.

When Wonwoo still wasn't back after a whole five minutes, and the fact that it was silent during those whole five minutes, Soonyoung began to get worried.

"Look Soonyoung, I'm sure he's fine, I would be able to sense his distress, you know tha-“

Soonyoung’s head perked up, and he held out a hand to stop Jihoon from talking, “I just heard him gasp.”, he sniffed once, “and I think I can smell blood.” 

Jihoon however could not hear, nor smell a thing, but who was he to go against Soonyoung’s abilities. Something wasn’t right, and Jihoon could just feel it.

“What are you waiting for? Teleport in there!” Jihoon urged him, shoving his shoulder lightly. 

Soonyoung stared at him as if he were stupid, “You know I can’t, I don’t know where they’re standing, I could teleport right in front of them and that wouldn’t look good.”

Jihoon sighed, visibly deflating, “I forgot.”

Eyes squinted, Soonyoung gave him the most disbelieving look he could muster, “You have literally never forgotten anything.” 

“Wishful thinking?” Jihoon tried.

“You don’t do ‘wishful thinking’ either.” 

Sometimes, Jihoon hates how well Soonyoung knows him.

-

They were still deciding (read: bickering) on how to approach the situation, when the door opened to nothing, and they simultaneously breathed out heavily,

“Don’t relax.” The air said, “There’s an operative outside, the asshole injected me.” Imperidium, that’s what Wonwoo was injected with, a poison the humans developed that was harmless to them, but rendered mutants helpless, that explains why there was some sort of barrier between Wonwoo’s thought frequency and Jihoon. It also explains the blood Soonyoung smelt. At Soonyoung’s questioning look (Jihoon had already scanned Wonwoo’s thoughts, so he was already aware), Wonwoo continued, “it was a weak dose, I escaped when he reached for more.”

“We should probably get rid of him.” Jihoon said.

Wonwoo and Jihoon began discussing why and how the operative was here, at their front door, pulling up facts and events Soonyoung never knew even existed, unreasonably calm for such a situation, and it made Soonyoung feel more stupid than usual when he was around those two.

“Uh, guys.” Soonyoung interrupted, “I heard a gun.”

-

They had a plan, and it was in action. Getting rid of the operative wasn’t as easy as they (read: Soonyoung) thought it would be, seeing as the man was on a mission to kill and had already seen a display of superhuman power, which guarantees any human the right to kill. Either they all die or the operative dies. 

Wonwoo had stayed invisible, though it was probably going to wear off soon, or become too much for him, and he headed towards the room he came from. The operative was still in there, reporting the events to some unknown person over the phone, hand clutching his gun tightly, eyes flitting between the two doors in the room. 

“He may have invisibility, or super speed. He could also be a shape shifter.” Wonwoo heard disorted mumbling through the phone. “Yes. It won’t happen again sir.” The mumbling got progressively louder. “All I know is that he managed to get away in less than a second. No, I don’t know how.”

The operative was facing the door to the bathroom. Wonwoo could only hope that Jihoon had tuned in, he could already feel his body giving up on him, they had to hurry up before he materialised unwillingly.

-

“Come on Wonwoo.” Jihoon was mumbling under his breath, pacing the room, before straightening suddenly, raising his fist in exclamation. “He’s facing the bathroom. Wait,” Jihoon paused, clutching his head as he received more information. “And he’s in line with the coffee table. You can do it Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung had to focus, teleporting was not as easy as the humans made it out to be, he had to know exactly where he was going, and the layout of the place he was heading to, and it had to be within a certain distance. It was _definitely_ not as easy as it looks. 

Soonyoung visualised the operative and the front room, he could only pray that he wouldn’t teleport in front of the operative or he could risk a bullet to the head. That would be disastrous. Soonyoung could feel the tingly feeling in his toes that always occurred when he was travelling between places, and how he drifted out of consciousness for a split second as he materialised behind the operative, dizzy, as teleporting always disoriented him, since he wasn’t as good at it as he would like to be. 

He was a few feet back from what would be ideal, but he was glad he was facing the back of the operative instead of the front. Wonwoo was near the mahogany chair that they had found in the apartment that Soonyoung had convinced an older, more experienced mental based mutant, Donghae to provide for them. Wonwoo was still invisible, but Soonyoung could hear his breathing, giving away his position. It was time.

Soonyoung leaned his body forward, stopping just before his lips made contact with the government operative's ear, a smile stretched across his face, one that was normally bright, now menacing, accompanied by a menacing glint in his eyes. 

(It was pretty hot, Jihoon's brain helpfully supplied.)

"Peek-a-boo"

Jihoon watched the man jump in shock, true fear seeping into his eyes behind his tough demeanour, not that Jihoon was oblivious to his terror, of course. All he could hear were frantic pleas to God, the man's cries for help overriding every other thought frequency in his head, he couldn’t even tune out. Jihoon found it rather annoying.

Shockingly, the operative's face was surprisingly calm, almost calculated, but that didn't stop the erratic mess of thoughts going through his head, ones that Jihoon had the _pleasure_ of listening to. It was something that had fascinated Jihoon for the longest time, however, the way some people could mask their thoughts and true emotions so effectively. Not to Jihoon of course, or any other telepath or empath for that matter, but Jihoon still found it amazing. It taught him how to uncover people's every emotion, for everyone to see, not just him.

Jihoon emerged from his spectating spot behind the door, running his hand through his hair.

(Soonyoung also found that pretty hot.)

"Could you, like, relax." Jihoon rubbed his temple for added effect. "All the 'God help me's are kinda giving me a headache." 

The man looked even more shocked, no doubt piecing together that Jihoon could hear his thoughts, as he aimed his gun, finger shaking above the trigger, deciding whether to shoot Soonyoung or Jihoon first. Hesitation. First mistake. Wonwoo used this opening to grab the gun right from the operative’s hands, aiming it straight at his head, the weapon seeming to be floating in mid air.

The odourless white vapour that appeared whenever Wonwoo materialised began to waft throughout the room as Wonwoo began to take form. Jihoon noticed the paleness of his skin and how laboured his breathing was. Imperidium was a bitch.

Wonwoo cocked his head to the side, simultaneously gesturing for Soonyoung to move out of the gun’s path. “Move out of the way Soonyoung.”

The operative was shaking in his boots, completely terrified now. Jihoon almost felt bad for the operative who tried to kill them; The poor guy stood no chance. 

“Please..” The operative attempted to beg, eyes shiny and voice trembling. Wonwoo’s eyes hardened, grip on the black metal tightening, “You weren’t planning to show me mercy when you injected me.” 

And he pulled the trigger.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's for a dramatic chapter! I'm not sure if I'm good at writing combat yet and I hope to improve as this fic continues lol seeing as this is literally a fic based of superpowers and shit . We'll be getting more plot next chap if this isn't your thing though.Thanks for reading yet again and we should be meeting some new characters next chapter!
> 
> Oh yeah and follow me on Twitter @ten_decibels self promo I'm not ashamed


	3. Lee Chan (Foresight)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The worlds begin to collide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if my writings just deteriorating lol please stick around I promise things are about to get more interesting

#### Lee Chan (Foresight)

'tʃan/  
_mutant_  
1\. Precognition  
2\. Clairvoyance  
3\. Time travel

-

Hansol had always thought he was a human. From the day of his birth up until the day of his nineteenth birthday. Of course, he knew about the rumours, the vile things that mutants had done, and how he should fear them most. There were signs right from the very beginning, in elementary, where he had begged for his teacher not to leave work in the middle of the day for a family emergency, tantrum and all, but in vain, just for her to give him a hug and a kiss on the forehead, telling him she'll be back tomorrow. She never came back. That was the day Hansol's elementary teacher died in a car accident.

There were times throughout Hansol's childhood, where he would experience immense happiness for no reason whatsoever, only for something incredible to occur moments later. Like when his parents got promoted at almost exactly the same time, which meant more money for the entire family. Whenever Hansol tried to question his parents, they waved it off as him being a lucky child. They never talked about his elementary school teacher. There were also instances where Hansol was running late for his classes during high school, only to arrive exactly on time, when he swears he was five minutes late, but Hansol simply just brushed it off as forgetfulness.

Hansol had always had the inkling of a feeling that there was something that he just didn’t know, and his suspicions were proved correct, when he found out his true status at nineteen years old, at his parents' house for his birthday, when an argument arose between him, and his younger sister.

“Telekinesis is so much better! It’s so cool.”

“But Hansol, imagine if I could control your mind. I could make you agree with everything I think!”

Their parents were in the kitchen, occasionally interfering with worried looks, telling them that they should not be thinking about having powers like those evil creatures did.

“But we’d use them for good things!” Sofia exclaimed, reasoning with her father. The worried look remained etched on his face.

“Yeah, like changing the channels when Sofia’s being a bitch about the tv.” His parents were about to scold him for his poor language and his sister reached out to slap him on the shoulder, when whatever program was showing on the screen changed, to some sort of animal documentary. The whole room was drowning in silence. 

Hansol looked around the room, and all eyes were on him. He didn’t know what to say, “I didn’t do that, right?” It was surely just a coincidence. Radiation or something. It even sounded stupid to Hansol’s own ears.

His parents were quick to agree, saying that Sofia probably sat on the remote. Nobody mentioned the fact that it was miles away from where she was sitting on the floor. They could hear their parents arguing quietly over the music they were playing when they returned to the kitchen, and it only raised the siblings’ suspicions more.

“Try move that pen.” Sofia was talking in a hushed voice, eyes focused on the pen sitting on the desk, waiting for something to happen. 

“But I’m not a-“ Sofia looked at him with a stare that could kill. Hansol shut up.

He tried, believe him, he did. He tried to do whatever he did to make the channel change, focusing long and hard on the pen but nothing at all happened. He let out a sigh of frustration and defeat, “I _can’t_.”

Just as those words left his lips, the pen span in place, exactly twice, before it uncapped itself. Hansol and Sofia stared at the pen in shock, eyes flickering between each other and the pen as if it had done something so outrageously taboo. Which it had. Which Hansol was the cause of.

“You’re a-“

“I know.”

-

Hansol’s birthday dinner was tense. His father had cooked tonight and the assortment of dishes smelt heavenly. That didn’t do anything to quench the resounding tension. His parents attempted to make small talk, wishing Hansol a happy birthday and asking what he’d like for his birthday. Hansol replied with short answers, clipped at the ends and rough at the edges.

"Could you pass me the salt, honey?" Hansol's dad asked, as if nothing was wrong, ignoring the elephant in the room. 

As his mother reached for the salt, it began to levitate, albeit shakily. It just hovered for a couple seconds, three sets of eyes trailing after it, before it jerkily floated towards his father, landing on the table. Hansol's eyes widened; he’s sure he wasn't the one doing that. Sofia's head was hung low, facing the table, fists clenched, a tight, unnatural set in her jaw, "Why didn't you tell us?"

Her voice was cold, unwavering. It sent chills throughout Hansol's body. His parents began to sputter, starting sentences but leaving them hanging, guilt seeping into their features, and that was enough to confirm his thoughts. Hansol took a deep breath to calm himself, before joining his sister in questioning their parents, “We deserved to know."

His mother laid a hand on Hansol's shoulder, only for him to shake it off violently, "We wanted to keep you guys safe."

"By lying to us for our whole lives? You told us that mutants were evil. You told us that they kill people. You knew that we were mutants, but you told us that anyway." Hansol was fuming now, face tomato red and voice rising.

"We don't even know how to use our powers properly because of you. We barely know what powers we have, or how many we have. We don't know who we are."

"You could have been killed!" 

"What if we had found out when we weren't at home? What if someone had seen? I would have been killed either way. We can't even appreciate what we have because of you guys."

Hansol gripped the edge of the table and pushed himself off and out of his chair, the chair toppling over at the force used, he heard it break. Hansol didn't care. When the loud thuds of Hansol's footsteps subsided, Sofia asked one question, so quiet it was almost a whisper, her head bent, hair falling into her eyes. "How long were you planning to keep this from us?"

When her parents could not give an answer, she silently stood up, nodding slightly, shutting the door behind her quietly, the wood chipped from when Hansol slammed it with all his strength, leaving their parents alone at the table with two empty seats and four plates full of food.

-

Hansol has made his decision almost immediately, packing his bags and leaving the day after, calling his closest friend, who was also planning to leave home for reasons Hansol wasn’t exactly aware of, and pleaded to tag along. His sister desperately wanted to come, but Hansol firmly refused, she was just a child after all, she deserved all of the opportunities he had.

-  
-

Jeonghan wasn’t quite like the others; he was born exposed. To put it in the simplest, crudest form possible, his parents didn’t really give a shit. It wasn’t as if they were “exposed” per say, but there were rumours that they never bothered to deny. It would be pretty difficult for Jeonghan to raise the suspicions any further without actually confirming his family. 

Though it doesn’t seem likely, Jeonghan’s family held a lot of power, with a chain of great essokinetics and telepaths running through his family and how they never managed to get caught, no matter how obvious they were. Jeonghan can’t act like he hasn’t used his abilities to alter the minds of others to get his way, as manipulative as it sounds. He’s always had a lot of freedom throughout his life, his parents trusting him to get himself out of any unfortunate situation if it comes to. This isn’t to say that Jeonghan is exceptionally skilled at what he does, and his illusions do not take solid form (Jeonghan doesn’t like to think about the time he ‘passed’ a test with flying colours, only for his mother’s hand to pass straight through the mirage of a paper), and his mind reading skills aren’t exactly the best (he also doesn’t talk about the time he misread his middle school crush’s thoughts which lead to his first proper rejection), but that’s not important. He’s had his successes, trust him.

Jeonghan made the decision to leave home alone, with the guidance of his parents. He didn’t feel like he was enough at home, he knew he had much more potential than he demonstrated, and the whole ‘kill all mutants’ agenda didn’t exactly sit well with him. It isn’t like he wanted to make a difference, because he didn’t believe in all of that inspirational bullshit, but he didn’t want to spend his own life just sitting at home, letting his powers rust with disuse.

When Jeonghan got that call from Hansol, he wasn’t entirely surprised, and had a slight inkling of the reasoning behind his sudden departure, which was only confirmed once they met face to face, his telepathy not failing him for once. He came clean to his younger friend, seeing no reason to hide it now, and the innocent shock colour his eyes sent the corners of his lips curling upwards. _This kid truly hasn’t experienced the world yet._

Meeting Chan wasn’t really a part of their plan, a kid they’d met on their ‘fuck the world’ journey. That boy had a purpose. Hansol and Jeonghan weren’t exposed, therefore relatively safe, and had money from their parents and the small jobs they got whenever they had a chance. They were _stable_ , something a lot of young people, none the less mutants, weren’t. To the outside world, they were just travelling teenagers with no planned future, but to them, they were mutants who were just trying to find their path, so, if you put it that way, they’re rather lucky they met Chan, because their stories could have ended very differently.

-

Chan was always a driven child, right from his early days. He was very vocal about his wishes for humans and mutants to live harmoniously, and droned on about his dreams to his elder sister, whose care he was under after their parents went missing, and when she was at work, he bothered his younger sister with his speeches. He became very silent once at school however. He wasn’t trying to lose his life before he even managed to do anything. Chan made a mistake, however, trusted in the wrong people.

He had a best friend, an amazing one at that, the one he had shared his earliest memories with. They had quite literally grown up together, their mothers being great friends whilst pregnant with the two and remained that way up until his parents went missing. He believed best friend was the only one he could trust, and so he did. He told his best friend he was a mutant on the fourteenth of June, and in turn, he told everyone who would listen that same day. 

Chan can’t even count how many times he’d return from home to find his house covered in egg, or inappropriate messages spray painted on his driveway. People have beaten him to near death, stolen from him in plain sight, whilst people just watched. His best friend was one of those people. Him being exposed meant that the rest of his family was also out in the open, and when they eventually got bored of Chan, they moved onto his fourteen year old sister. 

They chucked her into a deep depression, all of her friends abandoning her, like Chan’s own did to him. She stopped eating. She stopped sleeping. There was nothing the family could do. She was walking home from school, and Chan’s ex friends followed her. They murdered his sister on the fifth of July. She didn’t even attempt to resist them. 

They didn’t know who did it, and didn’t bother to open an investigation. That was it, his sister was gone and it was his fault for trusting the wrong people. Chan knows his case wasn’t one of a kind, and this kind of thing occurred _all the time He can’t just sit there when his sister is never going to get the chance to live the rest of her life. The humans took that from her, and Chan is going to make them regret everything they’ve done. Things are about to change, Chan can feel it._

_-_  
-  
\- 

_After Wonwoo pulled the trigger, they fumbled around, Soonyoung panicking over how they’re going to get rid of the body before someone comes looking for the operative. Jihoon constantly spouting facts wasn’t doing much to calm his nerves either._

_“There have only been 53 recorded incidents where a mutant has killed a figure of authority in Korea, since The War and the development of Imperidium.” Jihoon recalls, with a solemn look on his face._

_Wonwoo and Jihoon then proceed to talk quickly, mentioning dates and zones that Soonyoung has never even heard of, and Jihoon pulls up events from years ago, and tells them as if he were there, as if he studied the information for weeks on end, but knowing Jihoon, he probably only looked at it once. Soonyoung was beginning to get confused, constantly being around these two made him feel very stupid._

_“Uh, could I have a translation please?”_

_Wonwoo and Jihoon looked at him at the exact same time._

_“The government aren’t going to like this.”_

_He’d figured that much out by himself._

_-_

_They were on the run again, and were staying at some cheap hotel, far away from the apartment that the events of two weeks ago took place. They were entering the elevator, about to shut the doors, when another group of three came running to the doors, and out of kindness, Soonyoung reopened the doors._

_When they all managed to squeeze in, a man with grown out auburn hair muttered a small thank you, in a distasteful manner. Jihoon already didn’t like the guy. Almost immediately after that thought, Jihoon heard a small “Its not like I like you either, it’s the short ones that are always the worst”, in his brain. What. The two immediately made eye contact._

__You responded._ _

_The auburn haired man frowned, _You heard me.__

_This was new to Jihoon, he was so used to just hearing others thoughts and not getting a response back, that he almost forgot that it was possible for another telepath to hear his own._

_Jihoon almost responded aloud, but then realised how odd that would be to the other people in the elevator._

__Yes, what about you?_ _

_The man nodded slightly as a response._

__Jeonghan_ _

_That’s the man’s name, Jeonghan. Jihoon responded with his own._

__Jihoon. Our room is 809, come when you’re ready._ _

_The Jeonghan guy made a look of disgust._

__And why would we do that?_ _

_Jihoon deadpanned as best as he could in thought form, _Are you really asking that question?__

_They noticed the other four begin to look back and forth between the two, probably finding their prolonged eye contact and silence unnerving. Jihoon looked away first._

_A small voice appeared in the back of his mind, _We’ll be there.__

_-_

_As soon as they reached their hotel room, Soonyoung was overflowing with questions._

_“What the hell was that? You couldn’t take your eyes off him.” Jihoon honestly couldn’t see why Soonyoung was getting upset, it wasn’t like they were dating or anything, and besides, nothing even happened._

_Wonwoo finally spoke up, “You two were talking, weren’t you?”_

_Soonyoung was about ready to give up with these two, the constant state of confusion he was in was really taking a toll on him. They’re too smart for his own good. “What do you mean talking?”_

_He was ignored._

_“You looked like you were having a conversation, just minus the actual talking. Your facial expressions said a lot. Plus, you tend to make that face when you’re reading our minds so I just put two and two together.”_

_Soonyoung was about to object, that wasn’t just two and two! That was more like 1893 x 153893037 to him (not like it really makes a difference, seeing as Jihoon and Wonwoo could probably do that in under a second), and Soonyoung was just about ready to just take a nap right then and there and never wake up._

_Jihoon began explaining, “He’s a telepath, and an asshole too, he called me short and thought I wouldn’t know.” Trust Jihoon to start an argument with someone he just met and in _thought form_ too “The rest of them are mutants too, they’re coming to our room later.”_

_-_

_When a knock to their door came fifteen minutes later, Soonyoung nearly jumped off his bed to answer the door. It’s been so long since Soonyoung had friends who didn’t want him dead, and weren’t the two faces he saw everyday. It’s impossible to blame him for being excited._

_He opened the door rather forcefully, surprising the three boys on the other side of the door. He knew the one who Jihoon was staring at to be Jeonghan, and he recognised the other two from the elevator ride. They shared a few awkward smiles before Soonyoung invited them in._

_Once they were all settled on the two beds and couch in the room, a boy with light brown hair spoke up, “Um, I’m Hansol, I’m telekinetic, I think I’m a precog, and I’m not exactly sure what my other power is.”_

_The three who had not previously known Hansol shared looks of confusion, as most mutants powers had developed enough to be able to distinguish between all three of them at this age, but they all brushed it off, sensing that it was a question for a later time._

_Hansol then nudged his friend on his right, prompting him to also introduce himself, “I’m Chan. I’m a precog, a clairvoyant and a time traveler.” Once he saw everyone’s eyes widen at the fortitude of power Chan had, he quickly continued with a laugh, “I can’t exactly go back or forward large amounts of time though.”_

_“I’m Wonwoo, super intelligence, necromancy and invisibility.” In the corner of his eye, Wonwoo saw Chan start at the mention of his necromantic powers, and he made a note to ask him about that later. They had a lot of questions for this odd new group of people._

_“I’m Jihoon and I have super intelligence, photographic memory and telepathy, and Soonyoung over here has super speed, enhanced senses and teleportation.” Soonyoung makes a sound of indignation and mutters an ‘I’m perfectly capable of introducing myself’ to which everyone chuckles at._

_“Jeonghan; telepathy, essokinesis and mental manipulation.” Before they get a chance to move on, Jeonghan shoots a death glare towards Jihoon’s direction, and when questioned he responds, “Jihoon said I can’t be trusted”_

_It takes a moment for everyone to remember that there are two telepaths in the room, and once they do, Soonyoung nudges Jihoon in the side, “Play nice.”_

_Jihoon rolls his eyes at that, “I’m not a dog, Soonyoung.”_

_-_

_Everything goes well from that point, until Chan brings up fighting back against the humans for the first time. Everyone freezes, “We’ve nearly been killed by them three times. They’re very powerful, kid” Jihoon says, patting Chan on the shoulder._

_He clenches his teeth, “I’m not a kid. I know they’re powerful, trust me, but we can’t just sit here.”_

_“There’s six of us, and hundreds of them, it’s just not possible.” Wonwoo uses a sweeter tone than the harsh, brazen one that Jihoon uses so often._

_“But there are more of us out there!” The youngest of them all persists._

_“There’s nothing we can do, Channie, it’s just not realistic.” Jeonghan seems to have the final word in this argument and just like that, the conversation is shut down._

_-_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be a bit of a boring chapter, but its very important to the story, specifically because of Chan's history.
> 
> Oh yeah can't forget my shameless self promo SERIOUSLY WGAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET YALL TO FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER IM ABOUT READY TO DONATE A LUNG IVE GOT 11 FOLOWERS ITS EMBARRASING SHJBDJ (it's @ ten_decibels btw)


	4. Lee Jihoon (Echo)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four hundred years of this treatment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me ten years to post I just wasn't having a v good time and wasn't motivated but I'm good now :) expect actual updates now lol

#### Lee Jihoon (Echo)

'dʒɪhuːn/  
_mutant_  
1\. Photographic memory  
2\. Super intelligence  
3\. Telepathy 

-

Minghao had pretty much lived his entire life with Mingyu and Seokmin by his side, each of their parents dying at the hands of the law when they were both four, and Minghao's mother had kindly taken them into her family. They were close knit brothers, always together and always defending each other from the worst, and Minghao's mother was just the same, treating the boys as if they were her own kids. 

Minghao's brother was not exactly apart of this circle of love. His biological brother's hatred for the rest of the family stemmed from deep rooted jealousy, one that ate at him from the depths of his heart, all because he wasn't a mutant. Due to a weird anomaly during his birth, Lijie was born without any abilities, quite simply, he was born a human. To many, this would be a privilege, but for some reason, Lijie was against just accepting a peaceful life. Seeing his family members use their powers made him so inexplicably angry, livid even, that they just stopped using them in general to avoid angering the beast.

The family became so good at reading the atmosphere of the room and knowing the signs, that diffusing situations became rather an easy task, but there were days when nothing would calm the monster they had as a brother. Minghao can’t even count the number of brawls that have broken out in the small house between Lijie and the boys, and the amount of times that Lijie was dangerously close to striking their mother. That reason in particular was the main spark for most of the altercations, the siblings rushing to defend their mom and getting beaten in return. Lijie’s loathing was easily pacified by his parents before Seokmin and Mingyu came, and as time passed, the fact that everyone he was surrounded by had exceptional abilities began eating away at him.

Over time, Lijie's jealousy developed into a hatred for all mutants, including his family. He spent the majority of his time avoiding his brothers, only talked to his mother when he necessary and his father barely even existed in his perverse world. Lijie liked to threaten the rest of his family that there was absolutely nothing stopping him from letting everyone know about his families true statuses and enjoyed letting them live in fear. There must have been at least some compassion in his heart, as he never actually carried out any of his threats. 

It was pretty clear that Lijie was all bark and no bite. Until it wasn't. Lijie began to treat them with true malevolence, instead of the petty jealousy they'd all grown accustomed to.

Lijie exposed them, but they were waiting for it to happen anyways. A shaded part of Minghao thinks that Lijie feels guilty for his actions, but it’s not like there’s any evidence to back that up. It’s just foolish hope, that Minghao wants Lijie to remember that they were _brothers_ before the segregation between them, and at least feels remorse for tearing their family apart. He probably doesn’t, but Minghao’s got Seokmin and Mingyu, who’ve proved themselves to be family. Whoever said blood was thicker than water was clearly misguided in life.

Minghao hopes the fame was worth it.

-

They had intended to stay, and brave the worst of it, but when death threats started coming through the post, they knew they had to leave. Lijie had left the household the week he told, and none of the family knew where he was now. Perhaps it was better that way. Lord knows that Minghao would not have held back had he seen his brother’s face.

On the day that they were supposed to leave, Minghao’s mother grabbed all three boys in her arms, hugging them tight, before becoming serious, her tone gravelly and final.

“I need you boys to listen very carefully.” When they all nodded, she continued, “You guys know that we can’t stay here, and I have some very old friends who owe me some favours. They’re going to get you a place to stay.” Her eyes started becoming shiny, reflecting all around her. “They have a son who lives in Seoul, and that’s exactly where you’re going to go.”

She grabbed Minghao by his shoulders, “You _need_ to get there.” She turned away.

The three boys had mirrored faces of confusion, and Mingyu voiced his concerns. “But, what about you?”

Their mother answered with her head turned opposite them, facing towards the floor, “I’m not coming with you guys.”

Minghao had never been so angry, at his brother, at the humans and at himself. The anger he felt stirred inside of him, mixed with sadness and confusion. He felt so stuck, and he didn’t know how to handle it. So he began to cry.

"What do you mean, you’re not coming with us?” Minghao let his voice rise, overcome with emotion. He saw his mother wince. 

“I can’t.” The three boys heard the tension in their mother’s voice, the unsteadiness to her tone. Seokmin was usually the loudest of the bunch, always laughing obnoxiously or screaming for no reason at all, but now, he was silent. He simply didn’t know how to handle situations that couldn’t be laughed off, or made into a cynical joke, so when he spoke for the first time, all eyes were instantly on him. “Why?” 

Their mother turned to look at Seokmin, and when she saw the look on his face, a tear finally escaped, “I have business to sort here, darling.” She lay a hand on his cheek, to stop any more tears from falling. She failed, as more came cascading down her palm. She turned to them all, “Their son is a good person, don’t worry.” A sob wracked through her body with her next words, “Make your mothers’ proud.”

-

Their mother gave them their train tickets, the address, and a tearful farewell. She told them they’d see her soon. They knew they wouldn’t.

In a fit of rage, Minghao sent a series of short, clipped texts to his brother, before looking at his childhood home one last time, and joining his brothers outside.

**Minghao**  
_mom is going to die because of you_

**Minghao**  
_we hope you’re proud of yourself_

-

The train journey would have been peaceful, but each of the boys were plagued with worry. They knew their own survival was down to the flip of a coin, so what does that mean for their mother? Hatred was deep in their bones, and they swore to make their brother pay. 

Minghao had packed his camera in his bag, as he always does when going out, but he could not even bring himself to look at the camera his mother had gotten him for his previous birthday. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever pick up a camera again, let alone his own, that held dear memories.

When they arrived in Seoul, from their suburban town in the outskirts of mainland Korea, they were exhausted but heeded their mother’s warnings to not take a break anywhere, for any delays increase the chances of them being hurt. 

After six bus journeys, one taxi, and minimal conversation, they stood in front of a towering apartment complex unsure of how to even operate the door so different from their rural town. Mingyu’s not even sure he’s seen a building this tall. Once inside the white themed minimalist lobby, they made their way to the elevator. Seokmin’s eyes were wide with wonder, having never seen a place so elaborate in decoration. 

Minghao scoffed, “You’ll catch flies Seokmin.” Seokmin instinctively threw his arm out to his side, catching Minghao on his side. His brother hit him back before rolling his eyes as the doors opened. “What floor?”

Mingyu shook his head at their antics, before he pulled out his phone, tapping a few times before giving an answer. “Mom said it’s on the seventeenth floor.” 

Seokmin pressed the button, and the doors closed. “What did mom say his name was?”

“Seungcheol, I think.” Minghao replied, picking at a hangnail on his finger. 

Mingyu’s eyebrow raised, “How are we even sure that we can trust him?” 

To tell the truth, Minghao was a bit suspicious too, but it wasn’t like they had anywhere else to go, with little money, little possessions, and the unlikely possibility of gaining a job, so with that against them, what could be worse.

“Mom seems to trust him.” Seokmin shrugged, and as if on cue, the doors opened.

The apartment in question was directly opposite the elevator they left, and with a moment's hesitation, Minghao let his knuckles rap against the mahogany.

-  
-  
-

Minhyuk was hurt. Real bad.

Jisoo guesses that the bullet passed through Minhyuk's shoulder, with the small hole it left behind his shoulder. Jisoo knew the situation wasn't going to be pretty when Seungcheol pulled him aside.

“He’ll be lucky if he even keeps his fucking arm.” Seungcheol was speaking in a harsh whisper, as loud as he could be without alerting the delirious Minhyuk.

“And how the fuck do you know that?” There was no point in denying it. Even Jisoo knows he’s right.

Seungcheol cast his gaze to the ground for a millisecond, a dark haze coming over his eyes, before returning to meet Jisoo’s eyes, “I’m familiar with guns.”

Jisoo just raised an eyebrow. They’ve encountered a lot more alarming situations. Like a drowsy Minhyuk for example, drifting in and out of consciousness, with Jun and Seungkwan trying to change him out of his sweaty clothes. He’d been burning a fever for a good hour now. Jisoo has done what he could, but he doesn’t know if his powers can fix a bullet wound. Jisoo, Seungkwan and Jun had reached the apartment complex before the other pair and were each pacing the lavish apartment worriedly. Minhyuk and Seungcheol _had_ to be safe. They had to be, so when they came tumbling through the front door, each of the boys collectively released sounds of relief. However, as always, their sense of ease was extremely short lived. When they entered, Minhyuk was being held up by Seungcheol, almost carried by him, and on the verge of passing out. The cloth covering his left shoulder was stained with blood, and if it weren’t for the fluttering of Minhyuk’s eyes, Jisoo would have thought he was dead. 

The three boys quickly rushed towards the pair, thinking alike and hauling Minhyuk onto the nearest couch without a word spoken. Minhyuk had been shot. There was no need for an explanation. Seungkwan was crying loudly into Jun’s shoulder, and the latter’s muffled sobbing could also be faintly heard. Jisoo could see how glassy Seungcheol’s eyes were. No one knew if Minhyuk was going to make it. Yet again, Jisoo took charge.

Despite his authoritative tone, the sniffle into his sleeve, and shakiness of his words gave him away. “Make sure we stop the bleeding, and keep him conscious, we don’t want him dying on us.” Jisoo heard his own voice crack. It took a moment for everyone to get into action, before everyone began moving exactly at once. Seungcheol left the room to fetch towels and a bowl of water, his best attempt at makeshift dressing, while Jun sat by his side, shaking him in order to not let him slip away. 

It was now or never. Kneeling beside the couch, reminiscent of when Minhyuk warned him about the oncoming attack, he placed a hand on his shoulder and began to work his magic _(not magic, Donghyuck would say, a supernatural ability built from his genetic composition; who believes in magic anyway? Jisoo wipes that thought away with a smile.)_ He could physically feel the severity of Minhyuk’s wound, and how the energy was being drained out of his own body. If Jisoo can’t save Minhyuk, he doesn’t know what he would with himself. So he works harder, he was _going_ to save Minhyuk, even if it killed him first. Jisoo has never been in a situation like this, where he had absolutely no clue of whether his healing was working or not. He was completely in the dark about this, it was as if Minhyuk’s life force was completely cut off, and he had no clue about what would work. He was normally so in tune with his power.

After a few, long, gruelling minutes Jisoo pulls away, the other’s expectant faces fall as soon as they see that Minhyuk has not roused. Jisoo turns to face them, hands stuck by his sides, eyes cast downwards, “I’ve done what I can.” He proceeds to leave the room, but can hear the shuffling behind. He can hear Seungkwan protesting that they take him to a hospital, with Seungcheol firmly denying, reasoning that they’ll all be killed or sent away to be tested on like lab rats. Jisoo stops, a concern flagging in his mind.

“You told your parents where we are, right?” At Seungcheol’s nod, he continues. “They’ll search the house. They’ll know who you are. They’ll know who your parents are.” 

Seungcheol tenses, before relaxing, “I have no personal belongings in that house. They won’t find me, and besides, even if they do, they’ll find a Choi Seungcheol, not _the_ Choi Seungcheol. To everyone else, my parents don't even have a son. We’ll be okay.” He walks toward Jisoo, placing his hand fleetingly of Jisoo’s shoulder before retracting it. He felt the slightest bit comforted. They all jumped at the sound of rapt knocking at their door and shared looks of confusion. After debate over who would answer the door, they eventually settled on Seungcheol and Jun, the two strongest in the group (even though Seungcheol was ridiculously stronger than everybody else, that another body was practically pointless, another person still gave him a sense of security). 

Whilst walking towards the door, Jun lets himself wonder what it must feel like to be human, and not fear opening your door because it is an actual matter of life and death every time. When he finally gathers the courage to open it, he’s left rather disappointed, as three boys stand in front of it.

Seungcheol visibly deflates too, “What do you guys want?” 

A boy, who looks like their decision maker, steps forward and bluntly asks if he’s Choi Seungcheol. Seungcheol’s eyes narrow, before taking a step into the house for security, “Who’s asking.” The way Seungcheol asks isn’t even phrased as a question, and Jun feels shivers run down his spine.

Their ringleader speaks again, “Our mom sent us here after something bad happened. Told us that your parents owed her or something.”

“Bullshit. Who are you guys?” Seungcheol’s demeanour has completely changed, and his stance is now more aggressive. Jun knows that he could easily take down the three of them with no qualms. Seungcheol could be a scary person if he wanted to.

This time the one on the left spoke, “You’re a mutant.”

Seungcheol was quick to pin the guy to the wall, crashing into him with so much force, that plaster sprinkled onto the floor like snowflakes hurtling to the floor on the night of a blizzard. “Who told you that?” The main one was now yelling, trying to pry Seungcheol off his friend to no avail. “Look, I have a friend in there who’s dying, and I will not let anyone else fall in danger. Do you fucking hear me?” The one pinned to the wall, nods quickly, exhaling heavily when Seungcheol lets him go. 

“We’re mutants too.” The boy says it in an accusing, righteous tone and Seungcheol’s eyes widen.

Jun has had enough of the boy, and it shows, “ah, so the leader speaks again.” He mutters in Mandarin, his tone mocking and insulting. He expected the boy to get the message from his tone, not to speak back in his mother tongue. 

The boy’s head snaps toward Junhui, “My name is Minghao, you idiot.”

Jun doesn’t let the shock show on his face, but simply turns toward Seungcheol, who was watching with a raised eyebrow, “I don’t like this one.”

Minghao sneers. 

It’s the guy on the right this time, but he doesn’t speak, he just opens his palm, and what happens says more than words ever could. A ball of fire hovers slightly above the boys open hand, and orange glow akin to a sunset by the beach. Pyrokinesis. _Mutants._

Seungcheol wordlessly beckons them inside.

-

Seamlessly, Seungcheol returns to his amiable persona, apologising for his aggression outside, to who he finds out was Seokmin, “Sorry about outside, just gotta protect the group you know.” He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. Seokmin brushes his apology off.

When a still unconscious Minhyuk was shown to the new group of brothers, Jisoo looks hopefully toward them, “I don’t suppose there’s anything else you guys can do, is there.” He watches as they shake their heads and fail to meet his gaze, and his doubts are confirmed. Introductions and backstories aside, the original group agree to give the brothers a place to stay, however much Jun wants to rip the new guy’s head off, and all they can do is hope that Minhyuk wakes up.

-  
-  
-

There was an awkward air between the boys, especially around how little Hansol knew about his own life. It just didn't make sense. How on earth can a mutant his age not know his powers yet? It was glaringly obvious that the others were itching to ask Hansol why he was so _weird_. Jihoon had tried to ask Jeonghan multiple times through telepathy, but was met with a monotonous buzzing sound each time. A thought block. It irked Jihoon in the worst way possible, both that he was being ignored, and that Jeonghan could perform thought blocks, seeing as not even Jihoon himself was able to do one, having not mastered the art of telepathy yet. All it did was make Jihoon all the more determined to uncover Hansol’s past. 

So it's common knowledge that Jihoon could be an asshole, and most wouldn't put it past him to walk straight up to the poor boy's face and inquire about all sorts of personal things about his life. Which he did, by the way. When Jihoon has blatantly asked Hansol why nothing seemed to add up about him, the boy shut down for a good few moments, and Jihoon could almost hear the cogs turning in his brain. That was until Jeonghan came to his rescue, looking up from where he was sitting on their apartment couch.

"What the fuck, man? We don't go around asking what kind of traumatic shit you've seen with your photographic memory." Jeonghan stepped in front of Hansol, face accusing and angry.

Jihoon did not have time for this, "maybe that's because you guys don't need to know. But how do _we_ know that you guys can be trusted?"

Feeling his fuse blowing short, Jihoon began to walk towards Jeonghan, instigating some kind of fight. However before anything could escalate, Hansol steps forward.

"Look, it's okay." He places a hand on Jeonghan's shoulder, "I mean, he's right. I wouldn't trust us if I were them." Jeonghan mutters something about not needing their trust anyways, but before Jihoon can ask him to repeat himself, Hansol has already started speaking.

"I only found out I was a mutant a couple months ago. My parents hid it from me, so I don't really know much about myself to be honest." The way Hansol said it, like it didn't even bother him in the slightest, but Jihoon could hear the pain in his voice, and so could Jeonghan apparently, because he squeezed Hansol's shoulder before inquiring if they were done here. Jihoon wordlessly let them go.

-

Jihoon was whining endlessly to Soonyoung and Wonwoo about how he felt bad, and the others had given him thousands of solutions to make up for his insensitivity, but Jihoon hadn't taken a single one. With a single loud, exasperated sigh, Soonyoung exclaimed, "Just take the group out to eat!" 

Jihoon froze, making direct eye contact with Soonyoung before letting out a groan of relief, "You're the best, I was thinking of that but something like that wouldn't impress me very much, so I was waiting for one of you to say it so I would know that people like you would enjoy it." Jihoon was already walking, discussing where they would go and where they would sit and how they would get there.

"We'll sit in the corner on that circular group table, the six of us should fit. It looks out onto the street so we should have a nice view." Wonwoo opened his mouth, but Jihoon was not about to be interrupted. "Or we could sit in the middle where those high tables are, the chairs are an adjustable height on those." 

Soonyoung was dumbfounded, "We have _never_ been there." 

Jihoon looked at him for a split second before brushing him off, "Oh, I got a glimpse of the inside once when we were passing by."

Soonyoung and Wonwoo just shook their heads.

-

True to his word, a week later, there the six of them were on the high table with the adjustable chairs (much to Jihoon’s delight), eating their own assortment of cakes, the tension dissipating in the air. Airy, lighthearted conversations could be heard, and smiles were practically tattooed on all of their faces. All thanks to Jihoon of course, having been unable to rid himself of his guilt because of how much he pestered the poor boy. Hansol was in Jeonghan's grasp, stuck in a gripping headlock, because of a silly comment he had jokingly said, when Soonyoung vocalises to get their attention. As all heads turn to him, he looks down and bites his lip tentatively before explaining, 

"So I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I really can't help it.", at everyone's confused glances, he lowers his voice to a mere whisper, "That table over there." He points to a table across the entire restaurant, with seven boys of a similar age sat around it. "They're mutants."

Before anyone objects, he raises his hands in a defensive position, "I can literally hear their every word whether I want to or not."

Jeonghan mutters a, "that must be annoying" under his breath, forgetting completely that Soonyoung's hearing is much more advanced than most others. "Not really, I'm used to it. You learn how to tune things out after a while." He shrugs nonchalantly.

Jihoon scoffs loudly, poking at his drink with a straw, "Must be why you guys with super hearing are the worst fucking listeners." 

Soonyoung makes a sound of indignation, slightly swatting Jihoon's side in protest, and Jihoon can literally feel the butterflies in his stomach fluttering. Jeonghan looks at Jihoon in disgust for a split second before turning back to the group and Jihoon's cheeks tint pink in colour, embarrassed that Jeonghan read one of his private thoughts.

 _Shut up, I know you think that guy with the brown hair is cute._ Jihoon fires back. Jeonghan's eyes snap toward Jihoon, _yeah, so what?_

Jihoon rolls his eyes, _so you can't even talk about me and Soonyoung._ Wonwoo slams his hand on the table between the two and eyes them carefully, "Stop arguing while we're eating." He’s always been too observant. 

Jeonghan and Jihoon both slump backwards into their chairs, muttering under their breaths. Shaking his head in wonder, Wonwoo scoffs, "You guys are way too fucking similar." 

The group resounds in laughter as Jeonghan and Jihoon both start arguing with reasons as to why they’re _completely_ different, when Hansol speaks, "uh guys, where's Chan?" 

One by one, they all turn their heads to the table of mutants, and sure enough, Chan is there conversing with the entire table. He's all smiles and sunshine and the group isn't sure on whether to intervene, but their decision was quickly made when Soonyoung informs them that Chan just told the other group that he knows that they're mutants. In a split second, their faces darken, and in the moment before hell breaks loose, Chan's group are by his side. 

The man with chestnut brown hair, a soft seamless texture, speaks first, the man Jeonghan had spent so much of their time ogling at, "This is the second time this has happened in the span of a week, so you guys better have a good reason for your friend coming up to us over here." His voice is low, wary of the nearby customers, but threatening in a calculated way. 

In a hushed whisper, Jeonghan forcefully says, "We _do_ , sunshine, but we can't talk here." He waits for a second, then beckoning them to follow him. 

Obvious wary looks pass throughout every person on that table, clearly deciding who should follow, before the browned haired man sighs and says, "I'll go." He moves to stand before his arm is grabbed in a steel grip, a man with black hair looks up into the others eyes, "I'm coming with you, Seungcheol." 

Seungcheol looks as if he's having a battle in his mind and begins voicing his doubts before various members of their group start standing and insisting that they'll come too. Much to Seungcheol's dismay, the whole group are eventually waiting expectantly for Jihoon's group to lead the way. 

\- 

Once safe in Seungcheol's apartment building, they begin to talk. Though Jihoon and Wonwoo alike are cautious of letting too much information go, Chan bubbles with stories and explains who the boys are and what they do. Chan explains all of the intricate, beautiful details of their story as well as the painful, heart wrenching ones. Despite their predicament, and massive distrust of each other, all twelve boys find their hearts warming at the sheer passion in the boy's voice. 

After long moments of silence, Jun is first to speak, albeit extremely quietly, "I know you three." Pointing at Jihoon, Soonyoung and Wonwoo, "You were the mutants in my town that got exposed, we went to the same uni." 

Another boy, Seungkwan pipes up admitting that he remembers them too, and with a strong sigh Seungcheol says that they're probably in his mutant files. Before Jihoon can ask what files he’s talking about, Seungcheol is pulled away by Jisoo, and they begin arguing in hushed whispers, Jisoo protesting in indignation at something Seungcheol says. In that instant, the first thing he notices is Jeonghan thinking about whether he should make his move, pondering about whether Jisoo and Seungcheol are together. Jihoon turns and gives Jeonghan a pointed look. _really? Now?_

Jeonghan’s frown elongates into a shit eating grin, shrugging, _why not?_. 

Just as Jeonghan opens his mouth to begin talking, Seungcheol bursts, “Come live with us.” Jeonghan instantly looks toward Jihoon and winks obviously, _it’s a sign_ , and Jihoon fights the urge to facepalm because _of course_ that would be Yoon Jeonghan’s first thought in a situation like this. Before anyone can begin questioning his spontaneity, he explains himself, “We’re stronger in numbers right? And you won’t have to worry about money or food again. We just want to help you guys.” 

Soonyoung’s group throws gazes at each other, seriously considering the offer, baring Wonwoo and Jihoon, eyebrows raised. “How can we just trust you?” Wonwoo voices, sceptical of such a brash proposal. 

Seungcheol sighs for the nth time that afternoon, “You can’t. But staying with us must be better than staying in an apartment that can barely fit all of you, from what you’ve told me. Just give me time to get the new house ready, it should fit all of us.” 

Seungcheol’s got a point, they must admit, and it’s also convenient that the boys were only planning to stay in this apartment temporarily. That’s how they find themselves accustomed and comfortable in their new home with their new friends weeks later, though Wonwoo and Jihoon weren’t so keen on the idea of trusting someone they had met so recently this much. They soon fall into routine with each other, living in harmony as a unit, complimenting one another’s needs. All remaining tension dissipates as the boys become comfortable with each other, and for the time being, they feel safe, something they haven’t felt for a long time. 

-

When Chan walks into Wonwoo’s room on a calm day, Wonwoo barely reacts, greeting their youngest before going back to the book he was reading. They sit in silence for a few minutes, Chan fighting the whole time, sitting only to get up seconds later, shifting every few moments and wringing his hands. Wonwoo notices and decides to close his book, dog earing the page for later. “What’s up with you, Chan?” His eyebrows are furrowed in concern, sitting up to talk to Chan better. 

Chan startles at Wonwoo’s words, and tries to quickly collect himself, “Could I ask you for a favour, Hyung?” 

Wonwoo makes a slight face of confusion, seeing as the younger boy and himself weren’t exactly as close as he was with, say Jihoon, and he definitely didn’t think he would be Chan’s first choice, but he puts that aside anyway, and agrees to the boy’s inquiry. 

“I was planning on asking you this since before we met Seungcheol hyung and the rest, but I was scared.” Chan has sweat dripping around the frame of his face, and his voice is quiet and soft. When Wonwoo urges him, he continues in a timid manner, “I don’t think I ever explained what happened to my sister to you guys.” Wonwoo’s breath hitches, he had a feeling this conversation was going to go down this route. He puts his hand on Chan’s knee to comfort him, telling the boy that he doesn’t have to explain if he’s not ready, but the boy indignantly refuses and continues speaking. Tearily, he relives the days leading up to his sister’s death, retelling the misfortune of his life. As his story nears its end, Wonwoo can tell that Chan finds it difficult to continue talking. 

Squeezing his knee, Wonwoo tells him not to continue, that he knows where this goes. Chan wipes his face, and clear his throat once, twice, and opens his mouth to speak once again, “I just want to speak to her again.” 

As soon as Chan brought up the death of his sister, Wonwoo was aware of the favour Chan was going to ask of him, knowing that he was going to ask to get in contact with her. 

"I can do that for you, but you have to listen to me. If you feel that _anything_ is wrong, you have to tell me. I don’t want you to get involved in something you shouldn’t.” Wonwoo looks straight into Chan’s eyes as he says this, making sure he is listening. Chan cannot afford to interact with the wrong spirits. 

Wonwoo makes sure to disconnect himself from the situation as much as possible as he contacts Chan’s sister, so he doesn’t intrude on a private moment, going as far as making himself invisible, there to supervise so he can pull Chan out anytime he needs to. Wonwoo has never been very keen on allowing others to communicate with the dead, as it was a dangerous business not to be toyed with under any circumstances, but he felt for the boy, and understood his pain on a deeper level. 

After the séance, Chan turns to him with raw and emotional eyes, repeating what he had last said to his sister, to Wonwoo, “I can’t let the humans win. They killed my sister.” 

Wonwoo attempts to discourage the boy whilst also being tactful, but ultimately fails, Chan wrenches his arm out of Wonwoo’s grip, “We have to fight back, but none of you get it." 

He storms out of the room and causes enough commotion to alert Seungcheol of his exasperation. Grabbing Chan by the shoulders, he attempts to calm him down, rubbing his shoulders, but Chan won't listen to anything. 

Voice raising to a dangerous level, Chan disputes, "Why can't we fight back? Why do we keep letting them do this to us?" 

Seungcheol wanted to help the poor boy as best as he could. He wanted to give him hope in life that wasn't destined to be crushed by the humans, but he couldn't, and he had to be honest with him. "Because they'll kill us Chan." 

"Just like they have been for the past four hundred years, how many more?" Chan breaks free of his hold after waiting for a response from Seungcheol, slamming his door when all he got in return was, "You're angry at the wrong people, Chan." 

\- 

Later that night, when Seungcheol approaches Wonwoo about how it might not have been a good idea to let Chan contact his sister, Wonwoo simply shrugs and tells him that they both knew the consequences. 

\- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo yo yo so if y'all don't understand this fucked up plot that I barely understand myself, tell me in the comments and I'll clear it up for you guys<3
> 
> Also I don't know how to get rid of that one note that keeps coming back at the end.


	5. Xu Minghao (Essence)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh guys I’m sorry this took so long oof updates may not be consistent at alll but I swear I will finish this fic no matter what it takes

#### Xu Minghao (Essence)

'Mɪŋhaʊ/  
 _mutant_  
1\. Acid generation  
2\. Toxin immunity  
3\. Cryokinesis

 

-

The newly formed household was already in chaos. Upon waking up, Seungcheol had completed his typical morning routine, visiting every single room in the house, checking on his friends, especially Minhyuk, who was steadily recovering from his injury. It goes without saying that if Minhyuk were a human, he would have almost definitely died that day, and it’s still considered a miracle that he survived at all, so Seungcheol always made sure to visit Minhyuk twice, just to be certain he hadn’t succumbed to his injuries.

During his leader duties, a sleep ridden Seungcheol had not processed that he had counted twelve people, instead of thirteen, until he was back in his room to resume sleeping. A single curse left his mouth as he sat up sharply, barely giving himself a chance to open the door before zipping through it. Racing back through the house, he reentered every room, until he found the one. An empty bed within a room stripped bare of belongings. Chan’s room was rid of all his posters and figurines, his closet was empty and his bed was neatly made. As soon as he discovered the youngest was missing, he instantly informed the two oldest following himself. Jeonghan was in immediate distress, having known Chan the longest, and Jisoo was not doing so well either. 

Jeonghan promptly ordered a meeting in the office, after each of them almost light up Chan’s phone, ringing and ringing, only to discover his phone was either off, or he had gotten a new number just like that. One by one, the boys began pouring in, assuming a seat around one of the two large tables in the room. Innocent faces were twisted in confusion, each boy sensing the negative energy in the room, but no one being able to place their finger on the reason. Immediately after entering, Jihoon face became cold with realisation, instinctively reading the eldest three’s minds to figure out what was so _wrong_. Junhui narrows his eyes and asks the question lingering on everyone’s mind, “where’s Chan?”

Jisoo opens his mouth to reply, crestfallen in expression, when Jihoon cuts him off, voice grave and low, making direct eye contact with Jeonghan. “He’s gone.”

Everyone instantly knows what Jihoon means, no need of explanation, their worst fears confirmed. Jeonghan breaks eye contact with Jihoon, to explain Jihoon words further, “He ran away during the night.”

Gasps fill the room after a moment of shocked silence, as questions are instantly being fired at one another, the amount of answers falling behind at the rate of questions asked. In the midst of all the havoc, Minghao slips away, barely noticed among the arguing bodies that are now standing, except by Soonyoung’s sharp eyes and ears, and by Junhui, who felt Minghao’s hand slip out of his grasp, grabbing on to each other earlier as means of support, seeing as they had finally gotten over their petty squabbles after they started off on the wrong foot. Soonyoung does nothing but quirk an eyebrow, to which Minghao slightly shakes his head, and slips through the door, letting it shut quietly.

Baseless accusations were being thrown around, copious amounts of time being passed by disagreement after disagreement. Minhyuk being accused of not predicting this, but being defended straight after on account of his injury, and Wonwoo being accused of not using his intelligence to figure out that this would happen. The accused held their ground, and began to protest, explaining their powers to people who already knew their workings, but whose minds were clouded by denial. Seungkwan was the loudest of them all, voicing his concerns in shouts and sighs of exasperation. Lashing out unjustly at Soonyoung, he yells, “Why couldn’t you hear him leaving with your super hearing?”

Soonyoung face contorted into an expression of disbelief, and he paused for a moment, to make sure Seungkwan was really serious. ”I don’t know, maybe it’s because I can't hear shit when I'm sleeping, and neither can most people." Seungkwan was about to retort, when a loud creak stopped all discussions in their tracks. Everyone's eyes snap toward the door and all arguments immediately die down when Minghao enters the office, arms full of various snippets of paper. His facial expression glum, he dumps all of the paper on the table, confusing the rest of the group.

"What are they?" Mingyu asks the same question on everyone's mind. As a response, Minghao spreads the papers apart with his hands to give everyone a better glance, and they appear to be newspapers. "They're what Chan was collecting before he ran away." He pauses, everyone knowing the harsh reality that their youngest may not be coming back home. "I found them under his bed."

Everyone crowds around the table, pushing in order to get closer to the objects of attraction. The news papers are worn and scribble on in Chan’s messy handwriting, pictures of them and their friends printed in the center, some recent and some years old, with headings like _"sudden terrifying rise in mutant exposure" and "will we ever be safe?"_ , but amongst them, there are titles showcasing the good things that they've done; _"mutant saves sexual assault victim"_ and _"ex mutant task force member served country well"._

It puts a smile on all of their faces, even during such a dark time, how even the humans are beginning to see, after a lifetime of being terrorised by them. It doesn't cloud their sight however, they know they’re are still the most hated individuals on the entire planet. 

"I've been thinking," Minghao begins, surveying the rest of the groups reactions. "What if Chan was right? What's the point of just waiting to be killed?" We're hiding because they don't like the fact that we can do things that they can't."

A whisper sounds throughout the room, "He's right." It's Jeonghan. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't want my grandchildren to live the same way that we're living now."

Soonyoung’s eyebrow quirks yet again, when he notices Seungcheol‘s arm casually draped around Jeonghan’s middle, squeezing slightly to soothe him. Soonyoung had never seen Seungcheol be so openly affectionate with Jeonghan before, especially in front of everyone, but similar to before, he decides to say nothing and keep this information to himself. His thought process is interrupted anyways, when Jihoon speaks.

"We _can't_." Jihoon's voice was firm, replying to Jeonghan’s statement. "They'll kill us all, we can't do anything anyway, there's only fourtee-thirteen of us."

Minghao then lays a hand on the table, everyone leaning on it instantly recoiling, barring Mingyu and Jisoo, their pyrokinetic abilities leaving them unaffected by the now scorching heat emitted by the table. "See? We're thirteen people with exeptional abilities. And you're forgetting the others, like Daniel hyung and Minhyuk’s friends from before." 

Daniel was a close friends of Soonyoung, Wonwoo and Jihoon, being the same age and shared many classes with the three before they had to depart for obvious reasons. Daniel was one of the few mutants within their university that they were aware of, a strength based mutant, and he was very fond of showcasing his exceptional abilities in the fitness department. Daniel got into contact with the group soon after all fourteen came together, letting them know that him and Seongwoo, his long term boyfriend who was also another mutant, would be there if Soonyoung and the rest ever needed them.

A blanket of tense silence engulfed the group before Jeonghan gives in and speaks first. "Come on, guys, I know what you're all thinking." Jeonghan pleads with the group. "Are we really going to let Chan down like that, who knows if he’s even going to come back?" 

Everybody visibly winces at the mention of Chan, their maknae gone missing. Minghao urges the group with a “Come on, guys.” However, before another word can be spoken, Jun lets out an audible sigh and all heads snap toward his direction.

"Just leave it Minghao, we can't do shit for ourselves, much less for any other mutant out there." Jun's tone was rough, his voice laced with anger, and around the edges, a glimmer of sadness. Suddenly, he pushes himself away from the table he was stationed at, and leaves, slamming the door behind him. Mouths were hung open in shock at this sudden outburst from Jun, the closest to Minghao, except from his brothers. 

-

Slowly but surely, the group grew used to life without Chan. Seungcheol had set positions within the group, assigning Jihoon to logging any new identified mutants into their database that Jihoon had also set up. Soonyoung was essentially their security guard, checking the perimeter of the house every morning and evening, alerting Seungcheol and Junhui if anything was out of the ordinary, to assist him in checking out the rest of the house. Wonwoo was in charge of surveillance of the house through cameras, and Jisoo was virtually their doctor, as visiting an actual doctor would be near impossible, ever since the mandatory mutant test every doctor has to carry out before seeing a patient began taking place. 

Toxin immunity granted Minghao a rather dangerous job within the group, appointed as the Imperidium Tester, until they found better means to test for the substance, which Jihoon and Wonwoo were diligently working on. Of course, a poison as deadly as Imperidium would affect Minghao, toxin immunity or not, but the effects of Imperidium on Minghao would be significantly less lethal as to anyone else. This job was so necessary after Minhyuk revealed a story of his past. When he was still living with his six other friends, they had been gifted a drink set, which they alll unknowingly consumed, though it contained huge doses of Imperidium. Minhyuk and his six friends nearly died that day and Seungcheol absolutely cannot afford to take the risk.

-

Living with the man of his interest was definitely an advantage for Jeonghan, even amongst all the bullshit that has transpired since the day of his birth. Although heavily discouraged by none other than Jihoon himself, Jeonghan continues with his shameless advances toward Seungcheol. From draping himself across the side of the couch Seungcheol was already inhabiting, to outrightly telling Seungcheol how gorgeous he finds his face. Despite Jeonghan’s great efforts, Seungcheol never explicitly requites his advances and honestly, Jeonghan is beginning to feel a little tired. 

I mean, it’s not like he can outrightly demand Seungcheol to like him back, but at least he was now one hundred percent sure Seungcheol was not with Jisoo, even though he was a little embarrassed after asking, the reactions saying it all. But at the end of the day, past embarrassment, Jeonghan now had key information; Seungcheol was fair game. 

-

One evening, Seungcheol is startled awake from his position on the floor, mistakenly falling asleep whilst watching tv. Seungcheol immediatly sits up, thinking something is wrong, deduced by Minhyuk’s glum expression. Once Minhyuk takes a seat beside Seungcheol, he takes a deep breath, before saying that he’s had a precognitive sense. 

“This might be a far stretch, but I think it’s to do with my friends from before me and Jun got exposed.” To Seungcheol, this was very stressful information, as the last time Minhyuk had sensed something, it almost ended in their deaths.

“Are you sure it’s nothing dangerous?” Seungcheol carefully asked, not wanting to trigger any bad memories. 

Minhyuk shook his head frantically, “Its a good feeling this time, there’s a difference.” Minhyuk’s excitement was evident on his face, joy written all over his features, “I have a favour to ask from you.”

At Seungcheol’s urging to continue, he does,”You know how you keep track of exposed mutants,” Seungcheol nods warily, “I think my friends are on that list.”

Seungcheol shrugs, "I mean you can ask Jihoon for the list if you want, I think I asked him to log their details on the database." Seungcheol continues after being met with a blank face. "Which means it has their last known address on it."

Minhyuk's eyes light up and he jumps from his seat, slapping Seungcheol on the back before tearing down the hallway to presumably find Jihoon. Shaking his head, Seungcheol yells for Minhyuk to stop running as he’s only just healed completely. He yells a loud “stop worrying hyung” as he runs off.

-

Minhyuk finds Jihoon lying on his bed, head in Soonyoung’s lap, whilst he softly strokes Jihoon’s hair, both of them idly scrolling through their phones. Startled, Jihoon sits up suddenly, as if he’s been burned, not wanting to be seen in the position he was in. Soonyoung looks up curiously when he feels Jihoon sit up, and finds Minhyuk gingerly opening the door, after interrupting what looked like a private moment.

Minhyuk laughs after being given the okay to enter, “Sorry, I forgot you two like to behave like a couple.”

Jihoon looks aggravated as Minhyuk expected, whining about how him and Soonyoung are most definitely _not_ dating. How Minhyuk could even assume such a preposterous idea, baffles Jihoon completely.

After Soonyoung crosses his legs to make room for an incoming Minhyuk, who catapults himself onto the bed, Jihoon asks him what he needs from them. When Minhyuk explains how he wants to find his friends from before, Soonyoung feigns sadness, complaining about Minhyuk’s betrayal when they (read: Seungcheol) have ever so kindly put a roof over his head. Jihoon and Soonyoung laugh as Minhyuk becomes increasingly flustered as accusions keep getting thrown his way, protesting about how he’s not _leaving_ them, he just wants to reconnect with his other friends.

He continues muttering even after Soonyoung has explained that he was simply teasing, and still continues when he and Jihoon leave Soonyoung to go down to the computer room. The shorter does nothing but shake his head, smiling fondly.

Jihoon finds Minhyuk’s old friends in less than a minute, eyes darting between the three computers, different faces popping up on each screen. Minhyuk exclaims each time someone he recognises appears on the screen. Occasionally, mutants appear on the screen, a dark black hue shrouding the background, and when Minhyuk questions Jihoon about it, he’s quick to respond.

“You how mutants have a category of power they fall into,” Minhyuk is aware of this, he himself is a mental based mutant, but he has friends who fall into the strength category, or the elemental control. “There’s another group of mutants that are technically considered a group of families, and they are called the _familiae de tenebris_.”

The families of darkness. Minhyuk has heard this story before, it had almost become an old wives tale at this point. Five families who possessed the darkest powers known to mutantkind, killed and tortured from the day of their birth, more so than average mutants, until they day they took charge, terrorising the humans. Then the mutant war happened, Minhyuk shivers just thinking about the horrors that transpired, and all that were left were half bloods. People like Mingyu and Wonwoo. There’s still stigma around the half bloods, but it’s not really as obvious anymore.

Minhyuk is left pondering about the mutant war, and whether history can repeat itself, when Jihoon snaps him out of his own thoughts, telling him that he’s compiled a list of all of his old friends names. 

Minhyuk is ecstatic, jumping around already, and Jihoon proposes an idea, “I’ve been thinking, why don’t we set up other bases around the city and beyond?” 

At this point, Minhyuk is ready to agree with any idea Jihoon throws his way. “If your friends are willing, they could join us, I’m sure Seungcheol could find them a place to stay, then we could have a chance at making a difference.”

Widening his eyes, Minhyuk shakes his head in disbelief, shocked that these words were coming from Jihoon, “I mean yeah, sure, they’d definitely be willing.”

Jihoon smiles, “Sounds like a plan.”

-

It only takes a week maximum for Jihoon to get into contact with Minhyuk’s old friends, and arrange a place for them to stay, (along with Seungcheol’s help), after the meeting Jihoon calls, proposing his idea to set up other bases , and to say the idea was widely approved would be a severe understatement. Most of them were excited at the idea of meeting new people, especially other mutants, and the rest hoped Chan would come back after hearing the news.

Their first meeting with the other group was hosted by Minhyuk and Junhui, both being familiar with each party making it easier and less awkward. Hyunwoo had just recounted the famous tale of their mistaken encounter with imperidium, and explained how scary it was when they all fell sick at once, not a single one of them well enough to call for help. It was a miracle they had survived that day, and Jisoo can’t help but notice that _’miracles’_ seem to have become a recurring theme in their lives. 

-

Weeks pass with no sign of their youngest, whatever inkling of hope they had of him returning fading into nothing. Even their new friends, or _monsta x_ as they liked to call themselves, also began to worry for the boy they hadn’t even met yet, growing anxious too as time dragged on. A single thought nagged at the back of everyone’s minds, a thought no one, not even Jihoon dared vocalise; _what if Chan was dead?_

It was entirely possible, though no one would even entertain the idea that he was dead. Mutants were being hunted now more than ever since The War, and a young, outspoken boy like Chan could easily land himself in a terrible situation with the wrong people. It made Jeonghan sick to the stomach, thinking about the fact that their boy could be lying _dead_ somewhere, waiting for someone to find him.

What makes matters worse is the fact that the Lee Chan they know wouldn’t have gone this long without contacting any of them at all, especially Jeonghan, but when questioned, he just solemnly shook his head, admitting that he’d heard no word from their youngest. A dark cloud begins to suffocate the group, the general mood of them all plummeting to the ground, accelerating with each passing day Chan goes unseen.

Minghao begins to really advocate toward fighting back against the humans, much to Junhui’s disagreement, in place of Chan, and his words sound too much like Chan’s for the others to listen. Minghao arguing about how _Chan was right_ becomes a daily occurrence, and so do the hushed quarrels between Junhui and Minghao in the seclusion of their room.

Sometimes the arguments break past whispers and hushed voices, and become shouts, insults and unattested accusations thrown back and forth between the two, loud enough for the surrounding rooms to hear every word. Jisoo’s keen eye immediately notices when the two begin sleeping on separate beds again, and also remembers the night a door slams shut at three in the morning, only for Minghao‘ things to miraculously appear back in his old room the next day, the room he had before he moved to Junhui’s. 

Honestly, it breaks Jisoo’s heart to see Junhui and Minghao pull away from each other so violently, after becoming something so special and untouchable, after their misguided distaste for each other was resolved. So watching them slowly revert back to being strangers was something that was painful to the whole group.

Seokmin and Mingyu tried to consolidate their brother, attempting to convince Minghao that their bond was stronger than that, to just break so easily, but as stubborn as ever, he wouldn’t listen to Seokmin’s kind words, and wouldn’t accept Mingyu’s gentle touches, opting to remain alone with his thoughts and worries, and more importantly _without Junhui_.

-

**Author's Note:**

> Clearing up misconceptions:
> 
> \- Jisoo can control water that's already there, but he can't create it like he can create fire  
> \- Jisoo isn't affected by heat/fire but he can drown  
> \- All mutants have three powers that develop throughout their lives and at the age that the mutants are now, only one of them is developed fully (except Jisoo, he's a special case), This is so they aren't super powerful killing machines  
> \- Jihoon's fully developed power is photographic memory  
> \- Soonyoung's fully developed power is enhanced senses  
> \- Wonwoo's fully developed power is super intelligence  
> \- Seungcheol's fully developed power is force field manipulation  
> \- Jisoo's fully developed powers are pyrokinesis and phasing  
> \- Jun's fully developed power is gravitational reduction  
> \- Seungkwan's fully developed power is cryokinesis  
> \- There are 4 seperate groups that HAVEN'T MET EACHOTHER YET.  
> \- Please tell me if you felt this chapter was too long because I did, I'll try shorten the later ones.


End file.
